


Intervention

by Jasontodd908



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Hopes and Dreams, Intervention, Love, Rehabilitation, Rule 63, Sacrifice, The White Knight - Freeform, mental health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23990404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasontodd908/pseuds/Jasontodd908
Summary: When a reformed Joker sets out to change Gotham city, she comes to the realization that only half of the problem had been solved with her rehabilitation. Now, she needed to kill the Batman to save Bruce Wayne. Naturally, he sees it differently.(Based on the White Knight Comic Arc)
Relationships: Joker (DCU)/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 26
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**_Gotham City, Apartment of Jane Napier_ **

She stood at the counter, quietly mixing her drink and staring at the mirror. She had to admire her facial features, having been ashamed of them for a long while. Her hair had darkened, now black instead of green, and her skin, while still pale, was nowhere near the almost pure white it had been a mere few months ago. 

She looks down, blushing to herself as she fiddles with the sash of her robe. She enjoyed the feeling of it against her bare flesh, the softness and scent of it putting her mind at ease. She looks up into the mirror and smiles, a gentle smile. Not one of murderous glee, or ill intent. Just a smile. She finds that she enjoys the slight curve of her lips. She enjoys it all the more so because it was genuine. She felt genuinely happy. 

When she looks into the background of the mirror, the smile remains, not affecting her in the slightest as she realizes that she isn’t alone. “Well, let yourself in then” she says, turning around to smile at the dark shadow in the corner of her room. “Would you like a drink?” she asks, moving back around the half counter, wanting to mix another one. She hears silence in return and sighs, pinching her nose. “I guess not. No drinking on the job huh?” she asks, smiling again at her innocent joke. 

The figure just narrows his eyes, stepping out into the light. “What’s your plan Joker?” he asks gruffly, still poised in case she was to attack him. “In regards to what exactly?” she retorts, taking a sip of her white russian. “You know exactly what” he accuses, standing stock still. She hated this. This wasn’t how she had wanted this meeting to go. Then again, she knew that plans never survived first contact with reality. She didn’t get to confront him on her terms. 

She still didn’t like having to play hard ball, especially not with him.

“You may not believe this now Bruce, but I have Gotham’s best interests at heart” she says, moving to take a seat in one of her plush chairs. “You can sit down. If you’d like” she offers, knowing that he would remain standing regardless. She’s right. He doesn’t move from his position at all. “You’re right. I don’t believe you” he says. “All these years, all the pain you caused. Now the people cheer for you. Forgetting it all in a moment”.

She looks down, knowing that there was more to this conversation. ‘All the pain you’ve caused HIM’ she says to herself mentally. “I know. I live with the guilt everyday now Bruce” she begins. “And that’s why I became a city councilwoman. I’m trying to make everything right” she says, his growl cutting her off. “By destroying me”.

She can’t help but stand up instantly, her hackles effectively raised. “NO!” she shouts, calming herself instantly and lowering back into the chair. “Not at all Bruce. In fact, the exact opposite. I’m saving you” she says, watching as the man’s expression shifts to one of wary confusion. “I learned a lot in the past six months Bruce” she begins, standing up and moving towards the window, looking out over the city and enjoying its lights. “We’v been doing this a long time Bruce”.

“Stop calling me that” he says.

“Why? It’s your name. It’s who you are, and I’ve come to realize that” she says. “I used to think that I loved the Batman. That Bruce was just a mask he wore from time to time. But I was wrong”.

She turns, eyeing the man with a smile before blushing and looking away. “But I was very sick Bruce. You know that. I couldn’t tell what was real or not. Everything was a game. A joke. All flirtations between the two of us. I really did fully believe that eventually, you’d cave and love me for what I was then. But, that was stupid Bruce. It really was. Who in their right mind would chase after a homicidal maniac?” she asks like a light chuckle. 

“Nobody” Batman says, supplying the answer to her rhetorical question. She turns and quirks an eyebrow. “Exactly” she says, sounding as if she believed herself to have made a point. “Exactly. Anyways” she begins again. “After you dropped me off of that building, and after I healed from all of those broken bones, I began to really think to myself. I asked myself, ‘what are you doing?’ and for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a good answer” she says.

“I tried to push it out. To not focus on it. But in the end, the hurt and injured innocents, the property damage. All of it? Especially you…” she says, a tear leaking out of her eye that she quickly wipes away. “Your broken body, time after time. It all haunted me. I came to a decision. It had to stop. All of it. Immediately” she says. “I began to take my therapy seriously. Took my medicine. And I read. I read a lot. I learned law, and medicine, history and philosophy. I took it all in and I decided that I was going to heal myself, and make Gotham better. To atone for what I did” she says, rubbing her own upper arm in nervousness.

“But I realized that I was only part of the equation. Bruce...you were a problem as well. And after I got out, you became the only problem” she accuses, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not the maniac who has terrorized this city for years” he says, defending himself. “Aren’t you? Bruce, your entire ensemble is meant to terrify and frighten. How much damage have you caused? How many buildings had to be repaired because of your negligence. How many innocents were caught in your crossfire? Not just ours, everyones!” she says shouting. “Your war on crime turned into something else baby. It turned into a vendetta”.

“And that’s why you want to destroy me? Why you’ve turned my own against me? My own city?” he asks, snarling as he advances on her. She doesn’t move, standing her ground in much the same way as she had countless times before. “I don’t want to destroy you Bruce. I want to destroy the Batman” she says, stopping him in his tracks. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She smiles to herself, bringing her hand up to rub at the symbol on the man’s chest. “What I said before? About loving the Batman and not caring for Bruce? It wasn’t the truth” she says in explanation. “I love Bruce Wayne. His feigned carelessness despite being the man who cares for others the most in this whole city. His gentle and unsure words of comfort. His unceasing devotion to what he believes in” she says, continuing to rub at his body, surprised that he was allowing her so close. “I came to realize that all of the Batman’s best qualities were really the qualities of Bruce Wayne. The real Bruce Wayne. The one I saw so often” she says with a smile that quickly turns to a frown. “But all of the Batman’s horrible qualities? The paranoia, the rage? They all belonged to him. They weren’t Bruce, at least not the real one” she says, wincing as he draws away. 

She had been enjoying their contact with one another.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about” he says. 

“I do though. Maybe better than anyone else” she says, moving after him. “Bruce, I love you. More than any woman ever has the right to love a man” she says with a chuckle. “I guess that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. I’m still crazy about you” she teases.

“If you care for me, and are really seeking to better Gotham, stop this public crusade against me” he says, issuing her a demand. “I can’t my love. And remember, it’s not against YOU, it’s against Batman” she says, drawing his rage out. “We’re one and the same! Stop trying to play mind games with me..” he snaps. “We both know it’s not true” she says, standing up for herself. “Bruce Wayne is not the sum of that little boy in the alley’s anger” she says. “He’s kind, and good, and let’s people he loves in. He cares and helps. Somewhere along the line, you let that little boy’s anger and fear cloak you in darkness, and now you only seem to want terror for the sake of terror” she says, forcing the vigilante to stop in his tracks, his mind questioning everything with the woman’s words.

“That’s why I’ve convinced Commissioner Gordon to bring you in” she says, feeling guilty at one this aspect of her plan. “And that’s why Nightwing and Batgirl have joined me in trying to help you Bruce. They love you. The you they saw without the cowl”.

There is silence between the two, the words sinking in uncomfortably. “In order to save the man I love, Batman has to die” she says with a sad smile. “I won’t let you bury yourself in grief Bruce. I won’t let you drown yourself in the memory of your parents’ deaths. Don’t you think that they’d want better for you than this? That they’d want you to be happy? And tell me honestly, does jumping off of rooftops to pummel Two Face really make you happy?”

“I have a mission…” he begins, her own retort harshly cutting him off. “No, you have a death wish that you keep forcing on yourself. One day Bruce, you’re not going to be able to dust yourself off and do it again the next night. I refuse to let you die” she says, reaching behind a chair and drawing out a folder. “What is that?” he asks. “All the evidence I’d need to submit to Gordon to prove that you are the Batman” she says, taking no pleasure in doing this to him. “Don’t even bother trying to take it. I have backups and backups and more backups” she says. 

Batman stares her down, indeed having been thinking about swiping the folder and studying its contents. He knew she wasn’t lying though. He didn’t doubt her ability. “What do you want?” he asks.

“I want you to do the same thing I did Bruce” she says with a smile. “Heal. I want you to get better, and I want you to fix this city with me”. She places the folder on a coffee table, moving back to her seat and sitting down, crossing her legs over one another before taking another sip of her drink. “I won’t give that to Gordon. In fact, nobody will ever know who the Batman was. He’ll just disappear one day” she says.

“I’ve assembled a small team of doctors who are being sworn to secrecy. They all want to help you Bruce. Leslie has even agreed to head up your medical team” she says, causing the man to snarl at what he viewed as yet another betrayal. She hated hurting him, but she knew that in order to heal, he needed to face the truth. “You’ll walk into a wing of Arkham, built just for you. Alfred will be there to help as well. Dick, Barbara and Tim have all volunteered” she says, driving the nails into his coffin even deeper. 

“You’ll enter as Batman, and leave as Bruce Wayne, with nobody even knowing the difference. You’ll take all the time you’ll need to get better. I’ll be there everyday, though I do have a condition” she says, hoping he’d take the bait. He did, as always. “What is your condition?” he asks, making her feel hope that he would take this olive branch. “Every week, you’ll meet with me for a coffee, at least for the first three. On the third coffee date, we’ll kiss. On the fourth, we’ll see a movie, in Arkham of course. After that, we’ll decide what to do from then on out”.

He scowls, looking out over the city again. “And when I refuse?” he asks.

She looks down, trying to bite back the tears that threaten to spill when she hears the word “when”.   
  
“Then I’ll send this to Gordon and issue an order for you to be brought in. Nightwing and Batgirl, as well as many others who care for you, will track you down to take you in by force. Everything else will be as I described it. There is not out for you anymore Bruce” she says, a cold glint of steel coming into her eyes. “This is it. The end of Batman. Funny, I once thought I’d be ecstatic to finally kill you, but now? All I feel is pain at the thought of hurting you in any way” she says. “But if I have to hurt you to save you Bruce, I will. Besides, I’ll be there to make it all better afterwards” she says.

He turns and glares at her, causing her to chuckle. “Ohh, did you think I’d give up on my dreams of being Mrs. Wayne?” she asks, quirking an eyebrow. “I didn’t. It’s all in perspective now Bruce. All of it” she says, moving close and once again touching him. She molds herself into his side, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. “We can clean up Gotham so much better as a team working within the lines” she says, hoping to make her case. “Batman will be remembered as what he was sweetie. A necessary hero, in a dark time. But now? Gotham doesn’t need him. And neither does Bruce Wayne or Jane Napier” she says.

“What Bruce Wayne and Jane Napier, and even Gotham city need, is for us to take a vacation, and work out our issues” she says, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “You’re still insane” he says, making her smile. He wasn’t moving away from her, or resisting her. He was standing stock still of course, but it was an improvement. “Maybe. Maybe. But only for you” she teases. She suddenly turns serious. Her mouth forms a flat line as her hand reaches up to caress his cheek. “The games have to end Bruce. This really is going to happen. I don’t care if you want it or not, and I’d rather you come quietly and quickly. As soon as we’re through this rocky patch, we can start again. I’ll always be waiting for you, no matter what” she says, standing on the tips of her toes to kiss his lips.

“We can do this together sweetie. You don’t have to be alone. Let’s start something new” she says, offering the olive branch once again. He doesn’t move, making her think that for a moment, that one treacherous moment, he would do it. She could see it all in that instant. Her leading him into the asylum. Their first kiss. Him leaving the asylum, dressed in a suit and tie. She’d mold into his side and not let go, sitting in his lap the entire ride back to the manor. He’d carry her up the stairs and they’d make love. A little while later he’d propose at the Iceberg lounge, and she would ecstatically say yes. The newspapers would go crazy, gushing over how Gotham’s new “white knight”, the reformed criminal known as the Joker, would be marrying Gotham’s most famous son.

She’d snicker and he’d laugh at all the media circus, their minds focused on charity and improving the city. After a year, she’d be holding their baby in the hospital, a pair of gushing new parents surrounded by friends and loved ones. Years later, they’d be seated in the living room, their children scattered about either watching or playing while a newscast would ask “whatever happened to the caped crusader?”

She’d turn to him and smile, and he’d look away, fighting his own, all the while acknowledging that they had the best life possible, forgetting those dark days as best as they could.

Their lives flash before her eyes in a second, all as a result of the promise delivered by his unsure stance. They would be happy. For the first time in their lives, they’d be happy. 

He moves from her arms, moving towards the window, his cape billowing behind him. ‘No, no, no! Stop being so stubborn!’ she shouts in her mind, trying to will him to stay. He turns, looking over his shoulder with a scowl. “When you come for me, you better be prepared” he says, causing the dark haired woman to sigh. “I am. Are you?” she asks, wanting to cry at the pain he would inevitably experience as all the men and women he considered family rose up against him. 

He disappears into the night without another word, though she whispers some herself. “I love you” she says to the empty space, dreaming of the day when he’d turn in bed and say it back to her. She picks up her drink, sipping deeply. Moving towards her cell phone, she picks up the folder, eyeing its contents once more as the GCPD operator picks up. “Yes, I’d like to speak to commissioner Jim Gordon. Tell him that this is Councilwoman Napier. I have something for him”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman is alone, betrayed and surrounded. He's at his most dangerous.

**_Wayne Manor, Just Outside of Gotham City_ **

“Alright, everyone stay put. Nobody makes a move unless I say so. You hear me?” Gordon asks, eyeing the wary vigilantes who stand just off to the side. He trusted his officers, knowing that they knew their jobs and would do them to the utmost of their abilities. The capes? They were something of an unknown quality at this point. ‘Especially the kid’ he says, looking towards the now much older superhero who had once worn the Robin costume. His jaw was set, grim determination on his face, while Batgirl stood off to the side, looking much more unsure of herself.

Huntress, Batwoman and the current Robin were also there, though he didn’t mingle much with them. Once upon a time he had trusted them. He had trusted HIM. He didn’t know when it had all changed. Probably after years of nothing changing. Hospital bills stacked up to the ceiling, millions spent repairing the city, and all for no real net decrease in crime. In fact, the Batman’s existence led more warped minds to his city. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut at saying it, or even thinking it, but the city would be safer without the Batman. ‘Bruce will be safer too’ he thinks, his mind still reeling over the revelation of the masked man’s identity. 

He had seen him a few times over the years, mostly in passing. What he remembered the most was their first meeting. The silently crying little boy, sitting on a police bench. He had been waiting for for his butler. Gordon remembered placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder, being just a detective back then. He wasn’t even working the Wayne murder case. He had just walked by. “It’s going to be alright son” he had said, firmly believing it at the time. Through the years, he’d thought often of that time. He had thought that Bruce was happy. Or at least wasn’t letting what happened drag him into the dark.

‘How wrong was I’ he thinks.

“Is everything ready commissioner?” a voice asks from behind him. He turns, already knowing who he would see. It still discomforted him, even after all the good she’d done. “Yes Councilwoman” he says. She smiles, moving upwards to stand next to the man, the collars of her overcoat pushed up to protect against the wind. “Just call me Jane commissioner” she says. “Then just call me Jim” he retorts. 

“Alright Jim” she says, remaining silent. “Is your team of...heroes ready?” he asks, gesturing towards the group of men and women that were really the closest thing to a family that the Batman had. “They are. They’re ordered not to hurt him” she says, remembering how she had assembled this very skeptical team three months before. They had been effectively deputized by the GCPD, though they maintained their secret identities. 

“We’re all going to try, but you know how he is...if he makes it hard, we may not being able to help it” he says, Jane nodding in recognition. “He’ll make it hard” she says with a sigh. Jim smiles, though it doesn’t reach his eyes. “He always fights. It’s such a shame. The qualities that made him this city’s best protector, have also made him its worst threat” he says.

It had been a slow road for him to walk, but when it came to the Batman his conclusion was inevitably. He’d given him too much slack. Too much help. That ended now.

“He’s still this city’s greatest protector” she says, her eyes travelling up towards the lit mansion. “But it’s about damned time that this city looked after him” she says, fully meaning it. All is silent between the two of them, and that silence is filled with the years that stretched back between them. “I still have reservations about you” he admits, watching as she nods. “Don’t take it the wrong way, you’ve done a lot of good for this city in a very short time. But working with the Joker against Batman? It feels...wrong” he admits, the blur of activity around them blurring into the background. 

“We’re not working against him” she says, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder. “We’re helping him Jim. And please...don’t call me that anymore. I’m not that woman” she says. Gordon nods, bringing his megaphone up. “Sorry Jane. We’re going to get ready. Hopefully we can end this peacefully. I’d suggest you get back with your team until you’re called” he says. She nods, beginning to step back. 

She wouldn’t go far. 

Gordon brings the megaphone up, clicking it on before beginning to speak into it, knowing that the words he spoke would reach the manor. “Mr. Wayne. This is commissioner Gordon. Please, come out with your hands up, and unarmed” he says, knowing that he wasn’t speaking about a gun when he said unarmed.

“We’re here to help you Bruce. Everyone knows. This is over”

**_Inside Wayne Manor_ **

He watched, knowing that there was more than he could see at that moment. The line of police cars, officers and makeshift barricades was enough to convince him that he couldn’t leave through the front gate. Undoubtedly they’d have the rear covered as well. He feels the anger tighten in his chest at seeing Dick and Barbara out amongst them, watching beside the others he’d taken under his wing.

Wing. He’d smile at the joke if he wasn’t so consumed with his rage.

“Master Bruce..” Alfred begins, the old man moving up behind his surrogate son while he stands at the second floor window. “They have the cave blocked as well Alfred” Bruce begins. “They had to have told them about the cave’s location, though it wouldn’t have been hard for them to figure out”.

Alfred remains silent, watching him and knowing that he was speaking to cover his anger and nervousness. For the first time, he was facing a foe that knew practically everything about him. He was exposed, the mask metaphorically pulled off of his face. He was cornered and at his most dangerous. 

“They haven’t breached the cave yet” he says, moving towards the grandfather clock that hid the entrance to the batcave. “Master Bruce” Alfred says again, moving towards him and grasping him by the arm. “No time Alfred, I need to…”

“What you need to do is listen!” Alfred shouts out angrily. The anger in the older man’s voice stops him, and he can’t help but listen. Alfred sighs, looking down at the ground before he looks back up, looking Bruce in the eyes. “For years Master Bruce, years, I have assisted you. I’ve cleaned your wounds, stitched you up. I’ve brought you back from the brink of death time and time again”.

“But I won’t do it again. I thought...I thought that the death of your parents would be something that one day, you could put behind you. They were amazing people, and I loved them dearly. It has been a neverending ache to know that they are gone, and it was downright horrible to know that you would never stop seeing what happened to them” he says, the tears brimming in his eyes while his grip on Bruce’s arm tightens. 

“Alfred..” Bruce begins, being quieted by a look from the man.

“No, I must let this out. I have held my tongue long enough” he says, collecting himself. “While those facts have been a constant heart ache to me, what has haunted me, and kept me up at night, has been seeing the depth of my failure when it comes to you” he says. “I watch you throw yourself into the darkness. And I watch you bring it into your life, bit by bit every night, until there is no light left”

“We don’t have the time for this..” Bruce begins, not wanting to hear the same thing he had from Alfred multiple times before. 

“Then make it” Alfred says gruffly. “You have given everything in your life to the Batman. Made everything subordinate. I thought, I thought this would be something that would go on for a few years. It would end and eventually you’d start living again. I thought you’d marry, have children and most of all smile once more” he says.

“But over time, you began to treat your life like a cover for your crusade. You stopped being you and became….this...this thing!” he says angrily. “I implore you, take this offer. Your mother and father would never have wanted this for you. Go with them, get better. I am so sorry Bruce. I was never the man I should’ve been. I never helped you handle what happened. I allowed you too much space and I allowed you to let hate and anger consume you. I don’t want to bury you as well Bruce. I failed you. I know that, but please, don’t let this last chance slip through your fingers” he says, keeping his grip.

Bruce shrugs out of it easily enough, a shocked expression playing out on his face as he takes in the full extent of what’s happening to him. Alfred looks down, unable to keep eye contact with the other man. “Even you?” he asks, waiting for the englishman’s response. “Yes Master Bruce. Even I have lost faith in this crusade. But I haven’t lost faith in you” he says, trying to place his hand on the man’s shoulder. He looks up and doesn’t see the man, instead he sees Bruce as he was over two decades ago. Crying and scared,a young boy with tears streaking down his face.

The vision is gone as soon as it appears, leaving empty space behind. Bruce had opened the clock and bounded down the stairs, moving like a man being chased by his own demons. In a way, he was.

Alfred doesn’t hold back, and tears silently streak down his face as he takes out the cellphone he used to call one of his contacts. “Master Dick” he says, the man in question having picked up very quickly. “Yeah Alfred?” he hears, whispered from the other end of the line. “I’m in the police barricade. Is Bruce ready to come out?” he asks, hiding his conversation to the best of his ability. 

“I’m afraid not Richard” he says, hearing the responding silence from the other end of the line. “It’ll be a fight then” he finally says. “He’s going to try and escape through the lower levels Richard. I know you aren’t aware of it, but assemble a small group outside of the large rock beneath the waterfall” he says, giving away one of Bruce’s last secrets. “Huh. I never knew” Dick says, trying to lessen the emotional load of the situation with humor. Alfred smiles slightly. “Yes, Master Bruce never did like to tell everyone all of his secrets” he says. ‘Except you’ a voice whispers in his mind.

“Please, don’t hurt him Richard. He was like a father to you. I implore you to not let the distance that’s grown between you tw…”

“Relax Alfred. None of us are going to hurt Bruce. We’re the ones in danger right now if anyone is. We’ll talk soon. Gordon is going to move us in” Nightwing says, hanging up abruptly. 

Alfred looks at the dark opening of the staircase, knowing where it led down. How could he not? He had spent so much time there. Waiting for Bruce, assisting Bruce and trying to remind him that there was a world above ground. He steps forward and pushes the clock back into place, hoping to never see it open again. 

He doesn’t know why, but he moves into the office. It was Bruce’s now, though he rarely used it. Before that it had belonged to Thomas Wayne. He opens the large oak doors and steps inside, not bothering to shut the door. He isn’t interested in the sparseness of the space. What he is interested in is the large painting that hangs over the fireplace. It was of Thomas and Martha Wayne, in their younger years when they had just married. He remembred it well. ‘Bloody well had to hang it up there’ he thinks to himself, laughing as he remembers how he and Thomas had struggled to get it into position.

The smile disappears quickly, and he finds himself looking over the features of two people he had loved very dearly. “You’d be proud of him” he says aloud, the words echoing about the room. “He’s done so much good. Saved so many. I feel myself a Judas Iscariot of the highest order in betraying him as I have”.

He looks away for a moment before looking back. “I failed you. And I failed him more importantly. I am so sorry”.

He breaks down even more, his tears and sobs heard only by the darkness and witnessed only by the forever still but smiling visages of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

**_Outside the Manor_ **

“Commissioner” Nightwing says, having moved up quietly behind the man. “He’s moving. My source inside the house says that he’s making to escape through a tunnel. Do I have your permission to move our team around and cut him off?” he asks. He hated playing by the rules, a by product of his time under Batman’s tutelage, but he knew that things were different now, and he had no choice.

Before the other man can respond, Jane Napier approaches, forgetting or avoiding the fact that she was supposed to be subordinate in this arrest. “Nightwing, take Robin, Batgirl and Huntress into the cave. Batwoman and I will move to head him off at the secret entrance” she says imperiously, seizing control and irritating Gordon, though he doesn’t say anything. 

Nightwing looks towards him, waiting for his approval. It was clear that as much as Nightwing had lost faith in the Batman, he had not gained it in the former villain. It was probably like that for most of the team. The commissioner nods, looking back at the councilwoman. “Are you sure it’s smart to take him on? I mean…”

“As much as your concern is appreciated Jim, I’ve been fighting him for a while. I’ve gotten good at it. I also have a plan. One that involves him not getting hurt at all” she says, casting a critical eye at her team, warning them without words. Each give a perceptible acquiescence, ready to finally end this. 

“Alright, we’ll move in through the front, see if we can get him in the manor….”

“Trust me, the last place he’ll be is in the manor” Batgirl says, stepping forward towards her unknowing father. “He’s in the cave. It’s where he feels the safest” 

“Alright, just do this as quick as you can. The media is already whipping this up into a circus” Gordon says, wanting this ordeal to end. ‘I’m putting in for a vacation’ he thinks, his mind whispering that a break wouldn’t relieve him of the guilt he was feeling. 

“Let’s move” Nightwing says, the entire group being swallowed by the shadows as they sneak around the manor grounds.

“Bruce, this is your last chance...aww hell, he isn’t listening” Gordon says, putting the megaphone down and letting Councilwoman Napier’s task force handle this. ‘My hands are clean’ Gordon thinks, an image coming to him from the bible of all places. 

The image was of an imperious Pontius Pilate symbolically washing his hands after sentencing Jesus to death. 

Pilate had his face in his imagination.

**_The Bat Cave_ **

His blood was pumping, the adrenaline coursing through him as he rushed about, collecting whatever he thought would prove useful. He felt slow though, sluggish, his mind dulled by the sheer weight of all that had just fallen on his shoulders.

He jumped into the bat suit, being so practiced that it took him barely fifteen seconds to don. What became an issue, was thinking of a plan. Alfred’s betrayal left a bitter taste in his mouth, occupying his mind and leaving little room for anything else.

He is still the Batman though, and years of reflexive training don’t disappear easily. His utility belt is quickly fastened about his waist, leaving him with all the tools he’d need on a personal level. His mind worked next on where to go. His eyes settle on the bat mobile, and he knows that he can use it to escape. The vehicle would more than allow for him to get passed the police, and none of the vehicles that his former protege’s possessed would be able to match it in armor, or speed. ‘Escape is possible’ he thinks, his mind moving onto where he would go after that. 

The League was out. As soon as Superman or Diana found out about what had happened in Gotham, nobody would offer him aid or shelter him. ‘Alfred has turned his back on you. Do you really think anyone else would help if even HE is gone?’ he asks himself mentally before snarling at his own inability to focus. He decides to formulate a plan as he goes, having numerous safe houses that would protect him from discovery….for a time.   
  
He begins to rush towards the vehicle, pressing the control button at his belt to open the canopy, exposing the driver’s seat. He rebuked himself, having wasted precious moments deliberating what to do. He makes to jump over the side and take up the controls when something whizzes by his head, making him duck and roll to the side to avoid it. A sudden electrical buzzing is heard, and he looks up, watching as sparks dart around the inside of the batmobile, frying the controls. He scowls, knowing that only Wayne tech supplies could’ve done such a thing. He turns quickly, already in a fighting stance, his eyes scanning the darkness.

It doesn’t take him long to see who had fired the crossbow bolt into his means of escape. Mostly because she wasn’t making an effort at hiding. None of them were.

Huntress, a.k.a Helena Bertenelli, steps out of the shadows, flanked on either side by Nightwing and Batgirl. Her expression was firm and set in stone, though he could sense a bit of reluctance in her eyes. “I’m sorry Bruce. I really don’t want to do this” she says, and he knows that she means it. After all their years of fighting crime in the same city, they had developed a trust between one another. She had seen her family murdered by the mafia, and set out upon a quest to avenge them. 

They were kindred spirits.

She should’ve understood. The fact that she didn’t, and had even allied himself with those who sought to destroy him, made him even angrier. 

“Bruce, don’t make this any harder than it already is” Barbara pleads, stepping forward, trusting in reason to win the day. Nightwing does as well, trying to cover his fellow vigilantes. “There’s no way out Bruce. This is insane. Just give up. This? This thing you’ve been doing for years? It’s over” he says, his face filled with the same grim determination that Huntress’ was. He didn’t detect a regret in his former protege’s eyes. The expanse that had grown between them since the young man had left to make his own way hadn’t healed, and if he wasn’t trying his best to take him down Bruce would’ve felt regret for it. 

Now? He only felt the rage.

“I took you into my home” he says quietly, his voice more of a low growl. “I was there for you when nobody else was” Batman says, intending his next words to hurt. “I thought I saw someone like me. Someone who needed a hand” he waits, calculating it to have the maximum effect. “I should’ve left you in the gutter where I found you”.

It works. He can see it in the other man’s eyes. He was far beyond feeling guilty, especially in the den of vipers he had unknowingly raised around himself. “You made me into a weapon in your war on crime. Exploited me and what happened to my parents to further your own insane goals” Dick says, snarling himself as Barbara reaches out, trying to hold him back.

Dick shrugs her hand off, being too far gone in his anger to allow himself to be talked off of the ledge.

“I gave you a home. The training and the means to seize back control over your destiny” Batman says, keeping his voice measured and calm despite the tumult he felt underneath. “Too bad you wasted it by becoming Joker’s henchman. Of all the Robins I’ve had, you were the biggest waste of potential. Do you hear that Tim?” he asks, tilting his head slightly to the left, having known that Tim was somewhere in the darkness behind him. “Even with how pathetic and worthless you are, you’re still better than Dick Grayson” he says, letting a smirk lose that was meant to infuriate. 

He knew how to play mind games, and he would pull every card out of the deck he could to escape. It is working, causing Nightwing to seethe more and more. “You say that my mission, my crusade, is insane Dick. Yet you took upon yourself the same one. Who is more mad? The madman, or the fool who follows the mad man?” he asks. 

“Dick, he’s trying to get into your head” Barbara warns, watching as Tim moves out of the darkness from behind the batmobile, a birdarang already in his hands. It was clear that Dick wasn’t the only one being affected by Bruce’s words. 

“It’s working” Dick says, making to move forward once more. “We’re not supposed to hurt him” she reminds him. 

“Don’t worry. You won’t have to” Bruce says suddenly. The smile dropping from his face as he slowly reaches down, undoing his utility belt, letting it drop to the floor before he raises his hands and interlocks them behind his still cowled head. “You’re right Dick, this is insane. I’m exposed, everyone knows who I am. All of those I cared for are working against me. I’m a realist. I know when I’m beat” he says, keeping his voice neutral, careful to not let the despair he feels out. 

All is silent, the sight of a surrendering Batman enough to stop anyone in their tracks. It doesn’t remain that way for long, and Huntress and Robin both slowly lower their weapons, though they remain out in case. “Good. Let’s get this over with” Dick says, moving forward, the handcuffs already in his hand, ready to be deployed. Barbara is right beside him, relief registering on her face.

“Do we really need those?” she asks, not wanting to upset the balance of things as they were. “He said he’d come quietly” she reiterates. “Damn straight he needs to be cuffed. Especially him” Nightwing says angrily. They were only a few feet away now, missing the man’s appraising eye.

“Be careful” Huntress warns.

“We can handle Bruce” Nightwing says. “He’s gotta know he’s done”

Barbara is much less comfortable about what they were doing, and he sees the apology in her eyes. “I’m sorry Bruce. I really am. We’re doing this for your own good though. We want to help you. One day you’ll thank us” she says, hoping that the words she spoke were true. They were only a foot away now, and Nightwing begins to reach up, ready to quickly take his former mentor’s hands to cuff them.

“For someone so smart Barbara” Batman says, unable to suppress the inner joy he felt at this moment. “You’re very naive” he says, reaching out with lightning speed and grabbing Dick’s wrist, snapping it instantly. The man’s pain gives him a second to react, allowing him to further twist the broken appendage, smashing a few more bones in the process while pushing the body to his left, smashing Dick’s limp body into Barbara, throwing her off balance for long enough to allow Bruce to smash his fist against her temple, knocking the redheaded girl out instantly.   
  
He ducks, rolling forward and grasping his belt, staying low as two objects whiz through the air towards where he was, finding nothing but empty air as they keep travelling through the air. He hears Tim’s cry of pain as Helena’s crossbow bolt, intended to incapacitate him by hitting him in the thigh, buries itself in Tim’s stomach. Part of him wanted to go and assist the boy, but he buried that instinct beneath his rage.

‘You don’t owe them anything’ he thinks as he rushes forward, watching as Tim’s birdarang wedges itself in Helena’s thigh. The woman’s distraction gives him a small window to lunge forward and deliver a swift uppercut to the woman’s jaw, throwing her body back into the darkness. He picks up her dropped crossbow and snaps it in half, an act of petty revenge.

He looks around and smiles at how easily he had been able to disarm them. His smile drops, and he looks at Tim, his hands wrapped around the protruding bolt from his stomach, working to staunch the blood. “Bruce, please, help me” he calls out. Batman looks at the wound, knowing that it wasn’t fatal. 

He stands there in silence, watching his newest protege wriggle in pain. “You’re all dead to me” he says, looking towards the railing that separated the working area from the rest of the cave. To most, it would be preventing them from falling over a sheer drop off into a black void. He knew better though, and he quickly jumps over the railing, landing on the ledge that rested seven feet below. He turns, and vanishes into the darkness that disguised an escape tunnel.

He doesn’t see the pained look on Tim’s face, nor does he see him reach for the communicator he had tucked into his belt. “Gordon. We’re hurt. He got away. Tell Napier that he’s heading towards her”.

“Don’t worry kid. We’re on our way to you” he hears from the other end of the line. He nods to himself, dropping the communicator and moving his hands back to the bolt. He wasn’t angry at Bruce. He couldn’t be, no matter how hard he tried to be.

He was a fighter, and they were taking everything from him.

‘How stupid could we be to think he might just give up?’ he asks himself.

**_Outside of Wayne Manor_ **

He was close. He could see the thin line of light that edged around the corner of the rock. He could hear the rushing water, and all of these things hinted at one thing he desperately needed at that moment. 

Freedom.

The freedom to act, and plan and the freedom to maneuver. As soon as he could do that, he would find a way. He always did.   
  
He pushes out against the rock, letting it fall away and tumble down the hill below, crashing against the other rocks laying at the bottom. He is overcome by the fresh air, the splendor of the night. This was when he felt most alive. Cornered, but not beaten.

He would be happy, truly happy, if everything he had meticulously built wasn’t crashing around him. 

He feels something against his skin, having pierced the kevlar enhanced fabric of the cowl around his neck. He doesn’t think much about it, but as soon as he begins to feel strange, he reaches back, feeling the darts that had embedded themselves in his skin. He begins to fall, first to his knees, and then onto his hands.   
  
“Bruce, I’m so sorry” he hears, the voice coming from a thousand miles away, the figure even blurrier. He falls forward again, darkness consuming his vision until he can see no more.   
  
“Damn you Bruce. Damn you for making me do this” Jane says, holding the now unconscious man in her arms while she sat on the ground. A detached looking Batwoman stood a few feet away, a specially designed dart gun in her hand as she radioes back to Gordon. “We have him. We’re going to bring him in” she says.

Jane doesn’t hear her. She presses a kiss to Bruce’s cheek. “I promise, this is going to be okay” she says, tears falling down her cheeks. 

He doesn’t respond, her words falling on ears that couldn’t hear her. Ears that hadn’t heard her before. If only he had taken her offer….


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arkham has a new patient, and Jane Napier has a confidant

**_Arkham Asylum, Gotham City_ **

She was tired. Emotionally, physically and mentally. Only an hour prior, she had done a quick press briefing, announcing to the city and world that they had apprehended the Batman. Th flashing cameras, the raised hands and annoying questions of self important talking heads really bothered her. 

“Is Bruce Wayne going to be facing any charges for his crimes?” one had asked. That set her off, and she probably hadn’t responded as gracefully as she should’ve. “Bruce Wayne is a hero to this city” she had begun, ramping up her anger with each word. “With what he has sacrificed on OUR behalf, could never be accounted for. Trying to save us, drove him insane” she had said, feeling the peckings of guilt at that last accusation.

The responsibility for driving him insane could easily be laid at her door step. 

‘Everybody has forgotten about that’ she thinks, reaching down to rub his cheek while the police escorted van bounces along the road. The swat officers, Gotham’s finest, sat around, on edge as they watched the now unmasked and heavily sedated man. She feels guilt, guilt at the fact that they had gone from thinking him a hero one minute, to a mad man the next.

‘The exact opposite of how they think of you’ she thinks. It’s a thought that gives her hope as well. “Soon they’ll see you for who you are my dear. Even braver and stronger than before” she says aloud, hoping he could hear her as she sits close to his gurney, her fingers running through his dark hair. He doesn’t react at all, simply laying still. 

“Councilwoman, are you sure it’s safe to be so close?” one of the heavily armed and armored guards asks her, clear anxiety in his voice. “I’m sure officer. You stick to what you’re good at, and I’ll stick to what I’m good at. That sound alright?” she asks, unable to take the edge out of her voice, not sure if she even wanted to. 

It works, and the man backs down. She had originally wanted to transport him by herself, an idea that she should’ve known would be shot down instantly. Partly out of security concerns, and partly out of mistrust. It made her smile to think of how much respect she had quickly amassed, while keeping the fear she had built up over the years as well. It was an equation that had worked in much the same way as it had for Bruce, except in the reverse. He’d lost respect, and gained fear.

“So much alike” she whispers.

“We’re almost there Ms. Napier. I can see the asylum” a voice calls through the slot separating the driver’s cab from the rear. “Thank you officer. I’d like this done quickly. I don’t want to dose him again” she says, receiving an affirmative from the driver before the steel slot closes again. “That stuff was really effective in taking down the bat” an officer says, an unspoken question in his voice. 

“Yes” she begins tentatively, knowing what the man was getting at. “Its a Joker gas derivative” she explains. “Hmm, yeah you don’t need to tell me how effective it is” he says, chuckling as he looks around at the other police officers. “My sister? She was seventeen years old. Out at a Gotham knights game. Celebrating her birthday and what not, a few friends. You know, kids stuff” he says, leaning forward and allowing the woman to see his eyes, them being the only part of his face that was uncovered. 

“Anyways, she shows up. Douses the whole stadium in the stuff. Everyone starts laughing” he says, shaking his head matter of factly as Jane looks away, avoiding his piercing gaze. “Nobody died. Might’ve been better if they did” he says, the anger now becoming clear in his voice as the other officers begin to get jumpy. “She spent the next few years in a psychiatric ward. She’s gotten better, but she’ll never have a normal life. No college. No dates. No marriage. No kids. No future” he says. “And here we are, locking up the one guy who put the lunatic who did that away, under that very same lunatic’s orders. Strange world we live in boys, ain’t it?” he asks, reaching for his belt.

Before anyone can do anything, Jane moves forward, placing her hand on the man’s wrist, gently stopping him from moving forward any more. “I’m sorry” she says, disarming the man who keeps his eyes upon her, the hurt and anger moving behind his eyes like the crashing of waves upon a shore. “For everything I did” she continues, maintaining her composure. Meeting her victims was always the hardest.

“I can never give back the years I took. Or erase the pain I caused. Whoever you are, however I hurt you, please know that I am doing everything in my power to fix what I’ve done. I am working on reversing what my gas has done. You have my word, my word, that I will fix this. I promise you” she says, squeezing the man’s hand gently before pulling it away, showing that he was reaching for his holstered side arm. “But please, don’t do something stupid. Don’t let the Joker take another victim. Don’t throw your life away” she says, leaning back and looking at a now slightly stirring Bruce, his face scrunched up in pain as he was obviously dreaming of something. 

The officer looks down, letting his hand drop away from his pistol, his intent to use it fully gone. “Everybody here saw this officer reach down to pick up my cellphone which dropped didn’t they?” she asks, trying to keep a story that would mask the murder that had almost happened. “Yes councilwoman” another responds, the rest nodding while the man in question remains silent. She smiles. “It was very nice of him. He’s a good man” she says.

The van suddenly stops, the slat opening once more. “We’re here”

**_Inside Arkham Asylum, Newly Constructed Thomas and Martha Wayne Wing_ **

The orderlies pushed the gurney down the hallway, a few guards in front, behind and on the side of the man as they went. “We’ve prepped room three” a nurse says, a clipboard in hand as she begins to unstrap the gurney’s tie downs. “What are you doing? He’s not near the cell yet. Don’t unstrap him you idiot” a guard shouts, a glare from Jane stopping him in his tracks.

“I...I...just thought...since he was so heavily sedated...and he’s done so much...he saved my daughter…” the nurse stutters in fear, a comforting hand placed on her shoulder by the councilwoman. “It’s okay nurse. I’m here. He won’t get away. Trust me. The officer has forgotten his bed side manners” she says, casting a glance over her shoulder at the man. 

The nurse looks down, brining a cloth up to wipe away the sweat on the man’s forehead. “Bruce Wayne” she says, emotion ringing her voice. “I never thought I’d get to thank him for what he did” she says. “What did he do Nurse?” Jane asks, wanting to lighten the mood and put the woman at ease. “My little girl, Gianna. Her father was….a bad man. And he took her one night. She was missing for three days. I was a wreck”.

“I could imagine” Jane says sympathetically, indeed thinking of how she would feel if she had a daughter and she had been taken.

“He was very powerful, and the police didn’t want to do anything” she whispers, gesturing towards the officers who were around them. Jane nodded, understanding completely. The GCPD had changed, in large part thanks to Jim Gordon and Bruce’s efforts, but there was still corruption. 

“One night, while sobbing in my chair, he came into my house. I didn’t even hear him come in. I just got up to get some water and he was there” she says with a chuckle. “I almost had a heart attack, but he stepped out of the darkness and said, ‘I’m here to find your daughter”.

“I told him everything, and I begged him to help. He nodded and turned to leave, but just before he did, he put his hand on my shoulder and promised to bring her back to me” she said, the smile now splitting her face. “He didn’t smile, he didn’t try and comfort me like anyone else would’ve. His voice was still gruff, and he was very frightening, but at that moment, I believed him, and nobody has made me feel safer than the Batman since then”.

“The next morning, Gianna knocked on my door. Dirty and tired, but safe and sound” she says. “I sobbed and hugged her so close to me that I thought her back would break. All she kept saying was that the nice bat had brought her home, and that her only complaint was that she’d left her teddy bear behind” she said with a chuckle, the memory causing tears to trickle down her cheek.

“I bathed her, fed her and laid down in bed with her, and we didn’t wake up until that night when I found her teddy, washed and cleaned, sitting on our living room table. A note attached said that she’d left him in his car”.

Jane smiles to herself, the story filling her heart to near bursting as she looks down at the man she loves. “That sounds like him” she says, watching as the specially designed cell door comes into view. “He’s a hero” the nurse says. “What’s your name?” Jane asks, turning to the woman. “Katherine Zelenski” she says. “Well Katherine, you can thank him very soon, and repay him by making sure he’s comfortable here when he wakes up. He’ll be here a while, and as many people there are who are already looking out for him, it couldn’t hurt to have one more. Do you think you can do that?” she asks.

The woman nods, her head moving so quickly that it looked as if it would fall off. “For him? Anything” she says. “Good”.

The team wheels him into the room, working as quickly as they can while the police maintain a guard outside. “Unstrap him, and put him on the bed please” Jane says, the man having already been bathed and changed while he was sedated. They are able to do it quickly, covering the man with a blanket before administering another dose via a needle. “This will help him sleep councilwoman” he says, receiving a nod in the affirmative from her. “I want him to rest. That means no visitors” she says, smiling sadly. “Including me”.

She leans down and presses a gentle kiss on the now much calmer man’s lips as he slept, straightening her back and turning to leave with the rest of the medical team. “There’s an old man in the lobby, says he’s his butler. Should we tell him that he has to leave too?” a guard asks as he locks and bolts the door, turning off the light to allow the man to sleep. 

“Unfortunately yes” Jane says, walking down the hall, her heels clacking loudly against the linoleum floor. “But I’ll tell him. You maintain a guard here. If anything happens to him at all, I’ll have your badge, your house and the clothes off of your back” she warns, moving down to the lobby where has to finish her work for the night, the hardest of which will be telling Alfred to leave.

**_A Few Minutes Later_ **

“Please! You don’t understand, I simply must see him” the old man says, trying to argue with the receptionist. “I’m sorry sir, I truly am, but I can’t just let you…”

“Thank you ma’am. I’ll take it from here. Alfred…” Jane says, suddenly not knowing what words to say to the man who had practically raised Bruce all his life. “Councilwoman Napier” he says, a cold tone to his voice that she knew she fully deserved. “We’ve met, once or twice” she begins.

“I know everything there is to know about you” he says in response.

“Yes, well, unfortunately, I can’t say that what you know is good” she says, moving forward. “May I speak with you a moment?” she asks. “Privately?”

The man’s face shows his emotions as clear as if she was reading a book, though it was as clear to her as if she was reading a book. What was equally as clear was his dedication to the man he had raised. “Very well” he says, moving towards where she had pointed, his hat and suitcase in his hand. She follows him and waits until both are out of ear shot of the orderlies and police, who all pretend to be disinterested in the momentous events of this night.

“Alfred, I know how deeply you care for Bruce” she begins, being cut off by the man. “You have no idea, with all due respect Mrs. Napier” he begins. She looks down, knowing that she deserves this man’s ire. “I do. I know everything about him, and I am utterly committed to helping him heal. To helping him move past the horror that has blighted his life” she says. “I want Bruce to be healthy and happy, and even though I know I don’t have your trust, I intend to earn it. He’s safe here Alfred” she says, leading to the man looking around at all the security that had been assembled. 

“I love him” she admits openly, drawing the older man’s attention back to her. “It wasn’t all just an act. When I was….her. It’s one of the few things that we both agreed on” she says, chuckling nervously to herself as she references her past as the Joker. “We love him, and we want what’s best for him. What’s best for him tonight is rest” she says, hoping to have placated the man enough to put his trust in her truthfulness for one night at least.

“The others need your help now” she whispers. “I heard Nightwing was injured, and Robin as well” she says. “Huntress and Batgirl got off easy. Superficial flesh wounds or just a bad knock on the head. But they need you right now Alfred. Undoubtedly, this was very hard for them” she admits, knowing that taking on the Batman would lead to many scares, physical and mental.

Alfred looks down, his mind fixating on the damage that had been done to his family that night. He wanted to curse the bat symbol, and all the pain it had come to represent for him. He wanted to make it all better. Travel backwards and find a way to avert the crisis that unfolded before his very eyes. He couldn’t, and even if he could, he’d have to travel all the way back. To that alley in the middle of Gotham, right outside of a movie theater on a dark night.

He found himself very tired, the weight of his years pressing in on him. He sees commissioner Gordon, standing with his officers. It already looked as if they would spend the night on guard duty. With so many villains finding out the identity of the Batman, it was a shock that they hadn’t besieged the manor in place of the police.

“Very well” he says quietly to himself, placing his hat upon his head and readying himself to move back to the car. “But I will be back first thing in the morning, and if I find one hair out of place on his head there will be hell to pay, and you will find yourself in a cell somewhere below the asylum” he warns, casting a sideways glance at the woman before making his way to the exit.

Jane nods, knowing that she intended Bruce no harm, but not begrudging the man his warning. ‘He must be so devastated’ she thinks, feeling for the old man who undoubtedly felt as if he had lost his family.    
  
“You can head home if you want Jane” a voice calls from behind her, disrupting her train of thought and startling her, the commissioner having moved up behind her, a cigarette in his mouth. “Smoking indoors Jim?” she asks, raising an eyebrow teasingly. “Submit a police report” he says with a light smile of his own before it falls from his face. “Seriously, you should head home” he says. 

“It’s alright. I think I’ll stay”.

“You don’t want to drive yourself up a wall on this Jane” he says, unspoken fears of her relapsing entering his mind. “He’ll be safe tonight”.

“I know” she says. Her expression drops, giving away her true feelings. “I can’t fight the feeling that he’s in there because of me” she says. “That I did this to him, and once upon a time, driving him insane was all I wanted. Now? Not so much” she says, reaching into Jim’s coat pocket with shaky fingers, taking a cigarette from the man.

Jim is silent, lighting the cigarette for her without question, watching as she takes deep nervous drags. The nicotine gives her some relief and she can finally stop shaking. “Don’t think like that. It’ll kill you” he warns.

She smiles and nods, laughing to herself. “There’s also a selfish aspect to it” she says, not used to this level of honesty. “I want to be here at every step so he knows….knows that I love him” she says. “I have this fantasy. There’s this dark tunnel, nothing can be seen except everything that hurts you. All your darkest memories and saddest thoughts” she says. “But at the end of it, there’s this light and it’s this huge field with beautiful trees and grass, flowers and a creek. I want to imagine Bruce walking through that dark tunnel, his darkness swirling all about him, begging him to stay but he keeps moving towards the light, because he hears me telling him how amazing it’ll be and how beautiful it is” she says, taking another drag.

She takes a second before continuing. “He comes out, and he’s shocked, the sun being a little too bright. He takes a step back, wanting to go back because he’s not sure, but he can’t. I stepped forward and grabbed his hand. I would smile at him and keep pulling him out of that tunnel until he tumbles out and the darkness is gone. It’s just Bruce that’s left. We’d fall into the flowers and grass and I’d smile at him and nuzzle his nose with mine. He’d smile, a little nervously, but I’d just laugh and tell him that he shouldn’t keep a lady waiting for so long, even if in my heart I know I would wait forever and that he’d come just soon enough” she says, looking back at the man who looks at her in silence.

“I guess it is kind of stupid” she says laughing at herself. “No. I don’t think it is. Regardless, you want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for him when he comes out of that tunnel. Get some sleep” he says, patting her shoulder before walking off, rejoining the group of officers. Jane nods to herself, putting out her cigarette in a napkin and carrying it out with her, throwing it onto the pavement. She was tired, and her dreams would provide a welcome escape from the horror that her night had been.

In her dreams, she’d be in Bruce’s arms.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce Wayne faces his accusers, and they find themselves guilty

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

The cold beads of sweat made their way across his forehead, waking him up with the stinging sensation they cause in his eyes. His dreams had been fitiful, filled with voices and faces that swirled and moved about his subconscious like a mist. He moves quickly, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and trying to stand, his legs wobbling under him from disuse and the cocktail of medicine he found himself under the influence of.

He knows where he is, though the darkness obscures his view. He knew the scent of this place. The pervasive sense of hopelessness that forced itself through one’s nostrils and imbedded itself within the soul.    
  
Arkham.

The word sends an involuntary shiver down his spine, knowing what the word meant. He begins to panic, something that he had come close to feeling over the years but had always been able to pull himself back from. That was when he had the power to do something about what was happening around him. Now? He felt a distinct lack of control over the events that had led to him being an inmate here.

‘A goddamn prisoner’ he thinks, the rage being a calming balm on his panic. He is able to use it, letting it wash over him and pull him back. He had to get out, and quickly. ‘The more time they have, the more complacent you’ll get’ he thinks, knowing that the medicine would sap him of his will to fight. His paranoia soon kicks in, and his mind fixates on all the ways that they could possibly get him to cooperate. 

“No” he says to himself, beginning to tease his fingers along the bed frame, looking to find something, anything that could help him. Getting a lay of the land so to speak, would help him stay sharp. ‘The more time that goes by, the weaker you get. Get up’ his mind whispers too him, sounding suspiciously like the voice he used to mask his identity while he wore the suit. He stands, wobbling once more but remains standing through sheer force of will. 

He moves to the wall, falling against it as the process of moving his feet had become too much for him. ‘Focus!’ he thinks, working through the pain. ‘You need to focus. The walls are padded’.

He presses his hands against the one he was currently leaning on, ensuring that it was so. The soft fabric coated foam that meets him confirms his suspicions, and he doesn’t need to be a genius to know that the whole room is the same way. ‘Except the window’ he thinks, working his way along the walls excitedly, the effect of the drugs dulled by the excitement he now felt coursing through his veins. 

‘Just need to get to the door frame’ he thinks, knowing that Arkham was generally very old and decrepit, having been designed over a hundred years ago. If his guess was correct, they’d only revamped this new wing, not built a whole new one. 

The city didn’t have that kind of money to expend on one man.

The thought made him scowl. After all, hadn’t he spent millions upon millions of dollars on protecting this concrete den of despair? He didn’t want to be locked up, but he found that any perceived slight, real or imagined, stung. Like poking at an open wound.

He finally feels a gap, only the slightest of gaps of course, but a gap nonetheless. It was a part that was different from the wall, and as he moves upwards, clawing through the darkness, he can feel the glass pane. There was no use in breaking it. Even if he could, he doubted that it would allow him to reach the door handle. He would need a key to open it anyway, something he did not have the resources to mimic at that moment. He tongues his mouth, feeling the empty spot where’d they’d removed his false tooth.

Someone had told them ALL of his secrets.

‘Alfred’ he thinks, recommitting the man’s betrayal to mind. It hurt, it hurt like nothing else had since he’d lost his parents. But it kept him on point. 

He moves on, following the thin line of space between the padding upwards towards the ceiling, looking for the hinges that he hoped to find on the inside of the door. ‘Remove the hinges, pull back door panelling’ he thinks, citing the steps he needed to take to get out of the cell. As soon as he was out of there, he’d be able to exploit Arkham’s archaic sewer system and make a beeline for the city. He would disguise himself, buy some time. He had to have a few allies left,

He hoped.

“Bruce” a voice calls over the intercom system, startling him. “We’re going to turn the light on” the voice says, the man rushing back into bed, not wanting his attempt to be discovered so soon. He couldn’t be discovered. Not now.

The bulbs on the ceiling of his cell blare on, blinding him with their intensity. The shatterproof protective coating that had been placed over them made the glare all the worse, and he moved his arm up over his eyes, shielding himself as he laid on the comfortable cot. 

“Sorry Bruce. But we had to be a little abrupt” the voice continues, the steel latch that covered the window into his cell opening quickly. He couldn’t make out the face peering in on him, but it did sound familiar. He took a quick peak up over the doorway and couldn’t control his grimace. 

There were no hinges.

**_Just Outside The Cell_ **

“Are you sure doctor?” Jane asks, looking at the much shorter and much older woman in front of her. “He is probably still very tired, he should take as much time as he needs and rest..”

“I am sure councilwoman Napier, though your concern for him is touching” the woman says, a neutral tone controlling her voice. She knew that the woman’s medical background was holding her back from voicing her anger at the woman, but it still hurt. ‘Easy Jane’ she says mentally, looking through the glass of the cell. 

‘You’re not the victim here’ 

“You’ve been asleep for three days Bruce” Leslie begins. “It’s time to come and get a little exercise. Some people want to speak with you. People that care for you. I think it will be good for you to unpack everything that’s happened” she says, noting the man’s slow and sluggish movements. 

Bruce sits up on the bed, looking at the glass more intensely and finally recognizing the woman. He looks away again, standing and stretching slowly, pretending that he hadn’t already been awake. If it wasn’t for the sluggishness he was feeling and showing, he wouldn’t of fooled them.

‘So, even Leslie’ he thinks, looking intently at the glass as two officers come up alongside the team of medical orderlies now cloistered around his door. “Do you think that would be alright Bruce? Come out and talk for a little while. Just another little dose of medicine and then we can all figure out what’s going on” she says.

Jane shakes her head, leaning on the side of the door frame, just out of sight. She didn’t agree with the “limited intervention” idea. It had been a harebrained scheme from the get go. To have Bruce sit down with everyone who had helped bring him here and hope to magically have him be overwhelmed by their love for him. She knew he wouldn’t work like that. No. She knew that he was on full defense, and would shut down any attempt to reach him. 

Escape would be the only thing on his mind, which was why she had redesigned the door on his cell. In fact, she’d damn near redesigned the whole cell. No. Having him have a sit down with everyone would only cause harm, to him and more importantly to them.

She had wanted to handle this herself, but the fact that she didn’t have a medical degree struck that idea down. She had a plan though. Even though she didn’t have a degree, she knew Bruce. She’d intended to spend one month just speaking to him. Sitting and sleeping outside of his cell, making his entire world around her until he had no choice but to trust her. Then, she’d take him into the sunlight and let him see how the world in all its resplendence.    
  
She’d be there to hold his hand too.

However, the medical field won out, and she had no choice but to help in any way she’d could. As Gotham city had a personal and vested interest in this case, she’d made herself its personal overseer. She had been faced with a solid amount of resistance, but as usual she was jumping right over it. At this moment in time, she was convinced that Bruce needed a guardian angel, and selfishly she wanted it to be nobody but her.

Bruce stands and walks, swaying almost drunkenly as he moves to the door. All he gives is a quick nod, not having the energy or the desire to speak to the woman. He knew that he didn’t have a way out...not yet. He had to find one, and the best way of doing that was by getting out of this cell.

On the slim chance that there was somebody left on his side, now would be the time they’d reveal themselves. He wasn’t particularly excited to see who had rushed to see him, but it would perhaps give him more clarity. He wanted to stretch his legs, see more than this six by six foot cell.

“Good” Leslie says, stepping back and allowing the orderlies to open the door and move in, securing his hands lightly while leaving his feet unhindered. An injection is quickly administered, only the most skilled and professional staff being put on this case. “How are you feeling Bruce?” Jane asks, moving into his view, a glare being directed at her from Leslie. Bruce walks forward, flanked on either side by the two officers. He doesn’t look in her direction and instead turns down the hallway, the sedative having an instantaneous effect. 

She bites her lip and looks down, having expected that reaction, but not having braced herself for the hurt. “Not even a scowl” she says to herself, a sad smile gracing her lips. 

“Give him time” Leslie says with a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I wish I could be rude to you” the older woman says, walking forward and following behind her patient and his entourage. Jane is quick to pick up the pace, moving behind the group as well, her high heels clicking against the linoleum floor. 

“As much as he needs” she says to herself.

**_Arkham Asylum Visitor Center, Thomas and Martha Wayne Wing_ **

The walk had been silent, only the sound of shuffling feet and breathing audible as they went. As she stood against the opposite wall, her arms crossed over one another, she found the former experience to be preferable to this. 

Bruce had sat in the chair at the table, barely moving as people came in to see him. Friends, colleagues, stockholders, and as much as she hated to allow it, former girlfriends. ‘Veronica Vreeland. Pffft...what did he ever see in her?’ she asks herself, trying to distract her mind from the intolerable sadness that was wedging itself into her every thought.

‘Probably the huge rack’ her mind whispers back, giving cause for her to look in the window, serendipitously checking her own reflection. ‘Stop being selfish!’ she admonishes. ‘Bruce is in here, alone and scared, and all you’re thinking about is if he likes your breasts’.

It was hard to keep your thoughts on what was important when you so desperately wanted to reach out and make everything better. ‘Some wounds can’t be fixed with a kiss’ she thinks. 

Over at the table, commissioner Gordon sat down, taking the chair across from Bruce. The dark haired man sits there stoically, his arms folded in front of him as he wordlessly appraises the man in front of him. “I didn’t want it to go this way Bruce” he begins with a sigh. “Hell, I never even knew who you were, and to be honest, I didn’t want to. Because if I knew, I would’ve had to stop you, for your own good” he says, trying to get his thoughts out as evenly as possible. “Letting someone do the work we should’ve been doing, giving the city hope when they should’ve looked to the police to be their protectors” he chuckles. “Not that it’s your fault” he quickly corrects, realizing how what he had just said could sound to the man. “No. It was our fault. A Lot of us, we gave into the hopelessness. We just accepted that Gotham was crooked and we shouldn’t do anything above the bare minimum to change that”.

“But you made a lot of us realize Bruce. It could be better, and we owed it to the city to be better” he begins again. “And it got better. With every bad guy you put away, every corruption you exposed and every night you were on the streets. You inspired us, and you did a hell of a job. Hell, you inspired me. After years of same old same old, a failed marriage and a sense of being a lost ship? You made me belive in myself Bruce” he says, smiling at the man lightly before fixing his glasses.

“But somewhere along the way, you went too far. Instead of inspiring us, you made us complacent. Let us put all our trust in you. We put all our eggs in one basket. Or rather, we put all our baskets on one egg. One day, I started to see the cracks. The strain. You got harder as a person. I tried to hide my concerns. Bury them deep. I didn’t want to think that there would be a day when we’d need to do for ourselves what you’d always taken care of. In a way...Gotham broke you. Hell of a way to thank you for all your troubles ain’t it?” he says, chuckling mirthlessly.

Bruce doesn’t react, and he continues to just stare blankly ahead, his eyes devoid of any emotion. Jim looks down, shakes his head and continus. “But times are different now Bruce. You can have faith in us. Put your hopes on us to do the right thing. We can go on being inspired by the Batman and what he stood for. He was a figure of need. A Robin Hood for when things got dark. But when things get bright, he has to hang up the old tights and live his life like the rest of us. You deserve it” he says, standing up and fiddling with his coat, thinking about taking yet another cigarette. 

“We really let you down Bruce” he says, turning towards him again, the words almost unable to tumble out of his mouth. “This city took your parents and demanded everything of you, which you gave and then some. We didn’t give you a damn thing in return, but that changes from now on”.

Bruce seems to move slightly at that, and his eyes slowly travel upwards. He’s thinking of his next move, wondering how he could play this for maximum effort. “So I assume you know that Dick Grayson is Nightwing?” he asks, almost disinterestedly. Gordon nods. “We uhh..pieced it together. We know about Drake too. We’re keeping that under wraps though” he says. “For their safety”.

“Makes sense” Bruce says, giving Gordon some comfort in that it seemed they were having a normal conversation. “Do you know who the others are?” he asks, causing Gordon to shrug. “No, and it really isn’t our responsibility” he says, laughing to himself. “You being Batman was enough of a shock to the system” he says. Bruce smiles and nods, though his eyes give away a much more sinister intent. “Hmm. That so? If only you knew the secret lying in your own house Jim Gordon” he says, giving the other man pause.

Something about the way he had said his full name.

“What do you mean?” he asks, a nervousness playing in his voice.

The smile drops from Bruce’s face and it is replaced with the same emotionless expression. “One day Commissioner, one day, that darkness? It’s going to come back in full force” he says ominously. “It’s going to swallow up everyone and everything you love, and the last thing I want you to think about, before it finally consumes you, is that you were the one who put the final nail in Gotham city’s coffin, and when you call for help, nobody is going to be able to fill the tights that were hung up” he says, pausing for maximum effect. “I want you to think about me then”.

Gordon swallows, his mouth opening as he thinks of something to say back, but all that comes out is a strangled cough, a noise he tries to disguise as a laugh. “I think you’re too much of a pessimist”.

Bruce says nothing, the same stony expression on his face. “Goodbye Commissioner. I think it’s safe for you to assume that the Wayne foundation won’t be making a donation to the GCPD Benevolence Association this year” he says, turning his head to look out the window, a sunny day in Gotham to contrast the storm raging within him.

Jim says nothing more, nodding and turning to walk away, a haunted expression on his face due to the man’s prediction. ‘God, please forgive me’ he thinks, walking towards Councilwoman Napier.

She nods, smiling gently at him. “It didn’t go well?” she asks, already knowing the answer. “About as well as it could” he says, monitoring the police patrols about the hall. “He was a lot nicer to you than he was to the others” she offers up feebly. “He didn’t say anything to the others” Gordon retorts. Jane shrugs, admitting defeat. “True. Hopefully….well, maybe his next visitor will cheer him up a bit” she says, hoping on the hopeless. She casts a critical eye over at Dr. Tompkins, who was eagerly scribbling notes down on her notepad as she observed her patient from across the room. 

Jane had been in the system long enough to know that giving your doctor a lot to write about wasn’t a good sign. 

He further thoughts are interrupted as a noise from outside of the hospital puts them all on edge. It sounded like an explosion, and a slight ripple filled the air. “What the hell was that?” she asks nervously, her eyes instantly going to Bruce, ensuring that he was still safe. Her mind instantly goes down a list of people who had the means to hurt him, or who would even have the gall to attack him here.

Bruce seemed nonplussed however, and she was able to put two and two together. Gordon already had his revolver out, and she couldn’t help but chuckle at how useless it would’ve been. “Easy Jim” she says, pushing his hand down by his wrist. “I know who this is. Stand down!” she calls out to the other officers and orderlies, who all seemed to have jumped at the sounds.

“What the hell was that?” Gordon asks aloud. 

“Sorry Commissioner” a voice says, seemingly from out of nowhere. He had sped right in, blurring past the guards and police officers, standing, or rather floating, in front of the two of them. He slowly lowers to the ground, his feet planted firmly on the tile. “I would’ve gotten here sooner but...well, something came up. It wasn’t as important as this but…” he trails of.

  
Jane smiles at Superman, ecstatic to see him here. ‘Bruce always listens to him’ she thinks, remembering the time she’d teamed up with Lex Luthor to try and get to Batman. It had been boring, and the bald man irked her. He still did, though now it was more so due to his stupidity in throwing his life away in defeating Superman. ‘Does Lexxy have a thing for Supes?’ she thinks curiously, wondering if the reasons they both fixated on the two heroes were similar. She dismisses the thought quickly enough, but still finds it humorous. ‘If I ever find a way to get him in court, maybe i’ll taunt him with that’ she teases, noting that idea for future reference.

“Councilwoman Napier” he says evenly, nodding towards the woman. She smiles back, holding no reservations in her respect for the Metropolis based superhero. ‘He’s no Batman though’ she thinks, mentally comparing and contrasting the two. “He’ll be so happy to see you” she says, giving into her optimism. It’s contagious apparently, as the Man of Steel smiles back. He looks towards Bruce and the smile falls from his face, the man not even bothering to look his way.

“I do hope so ma’am” he says, moving over to take a seat in the chair that Gordon had vacated. Jane turns to Gordon and nods. “He’ll make him see reason. He always does”.

“Bruce, how are you?” he asks, openly conversation in his usually obtuse midwestern way. Bruce looks up and nods. “I’ve been better” he says, looking to the left and then to the right. He reaches forward suddenly, grabbing the other man’s arm. A few officers draw their weapons and move forward, fearful of what the former Batman might do, but Superman waves them off. As it was, Bruce’s arm was shaking, though the Kyrptonian wasn’t sure if it was from fear or the medicine or both.

Is was discomforting to see him that way.

“What’s the plan to get me out of here?” Bruce whispers, having given into hope and forgotten his belief that the Justice League wouldn’t help him. He needed a way out, and if Superman so wanted, he could walk him right out of the front door.

“Bruce…” he begins slowly.

“We can go out the front, but there’s also the sewers. I can move quick enough. I just need you to get me to the sewers. I’ve been trying to think of a way to get out of here” Bruce rambles, sweaty and shaky. “I can’t find anything. The drugs they’ve given me. It feels like I’m walking through goddamned wet cement” he says, shaking his head. “All I need you to do is bust open the floor. Right now we’re over the main atrium. Bust it open and I can get out and I can get to a safe hou…”

“Bruce, enough” the man says, his voice fierce and firm. He didn’t know if he had summed up that power to stop the man from convincing him, or if he’d done it to stop Bruce’s shaky words and infirm thoughts. Both frightened him. ‘It’s been a while. What’s happened to him?’ the Kryptonian asks himself.

“I’m not breaking you out of here” he admits, watching as the man’s face drops instantly. “What...what..do you me..” he begins, stuttering out the words. “I mean, that I’m not breaking you out of here. You need help Bruce” he says, fixing the man with his stare. Bruce’s hand falls away from his arm and he falls back into his seat, his body almost limp. “I’m sorry. This is hard for both of us Bruce. I know you’re in a dark place. I think that you need to stop” he says, letting the words drift off as Bruce composes himself, straightening his back and interlocking his fingers between the others.

It was always a sight to see how quickly the man could bring himself back. “So, after all I’ve done for the League, for you, you’re cutting me out to dry?” he asks, his voice almost passive. “It’s not like that Bruce. You’re still part of the League. As far as we’re all concerned, that makes you family, but...we can’t allow this self destructive behavior to continue. We’ll do anything we can to help” he says, wanting to impress upon the man the gravity of how much the League had rallied behind him. 

“J’onn, Dr. Fate and Mr. Terrific have all volunteered to come and help you. Diana wanted to come herself and slap some sense into you but we thought tough love would be the last thing that would help right now” he says with a chuckle. “Zatanna practically burst into tears at hearing what happened. Barry wants to zip in and talk to you. I have a whole list of people wanting to come and just talk with you. Even Ollie, a bit misguided as he is, wanted to, and I quote, “set you straight”, by sending alcohol and women” he says.

“But regardless, you have to stay here a little while. Just until you’re better”.

“What does this mean for the League?” Bruce asks, trying to orientate himself. Superman fidgets uncomfortably, not wanting to have to relay this information to the man by himself and specially not at this time. His invulnerability aside, he knew that this would be hard, and he was afraid of what Bruce might do in retaliation. “You’ve been taken off the roster Bruce. The Batman is done. Fully” he says. “Even if you did get out and took up the mantle again, you wouldn’t be welcome within the League” he says. 

“Ahh” Bruce says in response. “That doesn’t mean you’re out of the League Bruce” he says quickly. “It just means that you’re no longer an active duty hero. You won’t be called out on missions but there is a lot of other work you can do” he begins, hoping that this information would put a bandaid on the cut he was inflicting. “Batman isn’t part of the League anymore, but Bruce Wayne? He’s just getting started with us” Clark says with a smile. “We need analysts Bruce. People to process information and give it to us so we can get the job done. You’d do more than enough good there. We need you more than ever”.

Bruce doesn’t say anything, apparently being unmoved by the man’s words that he saw as an attempt to soothe his ego. “I want it back” he says simply, causing confusion for the Kryptonian. “Want what back?”

“Everything” he says. “Everything that was the fruit of my labor. All the tech, all the data banks and all the tools I’ve given your team”. His tone of voice is firm and solid. He fully meant what he was saying. “Bruce..” Clark begins, knowing that no matter how he framed this, Bruce was going to feel betrayed. “No. Save it. Whatever it is. I want everything back. All that my mind and my parents money has given you, it belongs to me. It’s MINE!” he snarls, taking the other man aback.

Superman looks out over the nearly empty room, shaking his head in disappointment. Mostly in himself. “Bruce, I’m not lying when I say that we need you. But we need who you were. Not who you are. I know it’s not your fault. Things have piled up on you, and you just need some time to thi…”

“I’ll have my lawyers working on repossessing all that I’ve given you and your team of heroes Superman. Now that the cat is out of the bag I can claim it all back. I want you out by the end of the week” he says, his rant being cut off by Superman standing up.

“It was a mistake coming here” he says. “Not because I didn’t want to see you, but because I knew it would hurt you. I had hoped that you’d understand but...maybe one day”.

Bruce remains seated and silent, staring down at the table top. “He was right you know”

“Who was?”

“Luthor” Bruce says, looking up at the man he had once considered one of his closest friends. “His fear of you turning on us” he explains. “I find it perfectly rational, especially with how you’ve turned on me. One day Clark” he says, accentuating the man’s name. “I hope you know what it feels like to have your charade peeled back. I’ll also be talking to the government. They’ve always been curious about how to take down the League in case you ever went against them. Waller came to me twice for my plans. Now? I think I’ll play ball” he says, saying nothing more as Clark looks at him, fear and confusion on his face.

He pushes it all down, hoping that Bruce’s words were just that. “Goodbye Bruce” he says, not sparing a word with anyone else as he exits, this time through the door. 

“This is only going to get worse isn’t it?” Gordon asks, having witnessed the argument besides Jane who remains silent, shaking her head as yet another one of her hopes was dashed against the rocks of Bruce’s pain. “I...I might leave for this last one” she thinks, hating Doctor Tompkins at that moment. ‘Having him face all the people he hates right now? Excellent idea’ she thinks, reaching into Jim’s coat once again for a cigarette. 

Just as Gordon leans over to light it, Alfred moves into the room, a large bag in his hand. “Master Bruce” he says with a nervous smile, heaving the bag up onto the table. Bruce doesn’t even look at the old man, keeping his head turned away from him. Alfred is hurt, but he continues on regardless. 

“I brought some things for you. Mostly books. A few cross words and such. Things to keep the mind sharp” he says. “I know how much that means to you. Keeping up with things. I was going to bring more but they said there was a limit. Also, no use in bringing so much for you to carry out. You won’t be here long after all” he says, nervously speaking to himself, hoping to fill the silence.

Bruce doesn’t seem to have even noticed his being there, his eyes focused on the window at the opposite end of the room, the sun just having started to lower itself across the sky, Gotham’s skyline becoming even more visible with the growth of shadows. Alfred seems not to notice, or at least he pretends not to. He keeps speaking, hoping to elicit some form of response. ‘If he would just speak with me’ he thinks, trying to find something that would make Bruce ask him a question.

“It’s been quite a day” he begins. “Well, quite a few days if I may say so sir. So many well wishers and admirers, all with gifts and such. Plus the near constant police presence. It has been quite tiresome. I’ve come every day, waiting for you to wake up. I know you needed your rest and what not, so I decided to not bother you. It’s been a long time since you’ve allowed yourself to sleep in Master Bruce” he says with a laugh. “I would say please make it a habit. It will do you wonders to catch up on some sleep. Ohh, you simply will not believe who called upon the manor yesterday. Believe it or not, Selina Kyle of all people. She came to…”

“Mr. Pennyworth” Bruce says, turning and fixing the man with a neutral expression. It catches the old man off guard, Bruce never having called him that before. “You have served the Wayne family for years. For that we are very thankful. However, your services are no longer required. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours. Nurse, take me back to my cell” he says, standing as the guards and nurse come over quickly, having been ordered to wait for such a request.    
  
Alfred sits there, his mouth opening and closing in shock as Bruce turns his back on him, moving back towards the holding cell wing. “Master Bruce..!” he calls out, standing up, the tears rushing down his face as he stumbles after the man. “Master Bruce!” he calls out again, his foot catching on the table leg and sending him careening to the floor. Jane is rushing across the room, stopping in front of the man and dropping to her own knees, hugging the sobbing man close to her. “Master Bruce, please! I’m so sorry!” he calls out through his sobs, through Bruce doesn’t even look back, the doors closing behind him and the nurses.

“It’s okay Alfred. It’ll be okay” she says to the inconsolable man who latches onto her, not caring about who she was as he falls apart. 

“Please Bruce, forgive me…” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce has a conversation with someone very important

**_Arkham Asylum. Bruce Wayne Therapy Session 45_ **

The only sound that could be heard in the room was the sound of the ticking clock, counting down the hours that most involved were beginning to feel were wasted. Bruce had done nothing but sit there, staring at whoever interviewed him with nothing more than a vacant grunt here or there. The only words he’d spoken were to ask to be taken back to his cell.

Leslie Tompkins was beyond frustrated, while Jane Napier was on the brink of being put back in Arkham. “Bruce…..” she begins, looking towards the man and reaching for the folder that she kept all her notes inside of. “I..I don’t know what to say anymore. I don’t know what to ask, or suggest. I don’t know what to do. Is this a game?” she asks, half jokingly and half seriously. “If so, give me a clue, because I still haven’t figured out how to play it”. 

Bruce remains silent, his arms crossed over his chest.

Leslie is silent again, having run out of steam on what she had been intending to say. She removes her glasses and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Are you punishing us Bruce?” she asks, knowing he would be capable of doing something like that. At that moment, she couldn’t find it in here to blame him.

“236 times” he says, his voice sounding like it came from very far off.

“What Bruce? What is 236 times?” she asks, unable to keep the tinge of excitement out of her voice at the fact that the man was finally talking to her. He remains silent, looking away from her, thinking of whether he should continue to speak or not. He decides on speaking, and looks up once more to stare the doctor in the eye. “Two hundred and thirty six times” he repeats. “That’s how many times I’ve escaped death” he explains, his eyes looking to some far off place. “The times I can count. The times that I’ve legitimately felt that I had no way out”.

She remains silent, letting him speak.

He takes a deep breath, taking in a long and drawn out gulp of air that he coughs on. He looked like a drowning man. “I was thinking that this would be number two hundred and thirty seven. But it’s not going to be. I’m going to die here. Perhaps I already have” he says, exhaling with a sense of finality lacing through his words. 

“That’s not true at all Bruce” she begins, ecstatic for the breakthrough despite his morbid thoughts. He’d been here for over a month, and since that first day where she had attempted to have him face his loved ones, he hadn’t said more than four or five words at a time. 

“You’re going to be fine. You are safe here, for the first time in your life you can feel safe” she says, hoping to coax him into opening up further. He shakes his head, looking down at the tabletop. “What’s that matter anymore?”.

“What does what matter anymore Bruce?” she asks, pushing the folder to the side. “Safety? Safety means a lot. In fact it should be something you aim for” she says, wondering where this conversation was going. Bruce chuckles mirthlessly, looking back at the woman and letting the smile fall away completely. “I just had my entire life uprooted, my deepest secrets and inner pain exposed. Pulled out like you’d gut an animal for everyone to pick and prod though. All done with the help of the people I trusted the most. Tell me Doctor Tompkins, should I feel “safe”?” he asks, descending back into an uncomfortable silence.

Leslie opens her mouth to speak again, but Bruce is able to cut her off once more. “I’d like to go back to my cell” he says. Before she can say anything the door slams open, banging against the opposite wall. Jane Napier storms in, the rage clearly visible on her face as she slams her palms down on the table. “Damn you” she shouts, her face scrunched up in anger as two orderlies follow in behind her. “Sorry ma’am, she moved so…”

“Where the hell do you get off?” she continues, berating the unmoving man who stares blankly up at her. “You think that just because we did what we had to do that you can just punish me huh? That I’d stay up all night sobbing over you? Regretting what I did? Huh, is that what you want?” she asks, the tears spilling over onto her cheeks. “Well it’s working damn you” she says, her voice warped by the weight of her tears. 

He doesn’t move, but he does glare. His eyes narrow as he looks at the woman, letting her unload the weight of her emotions. “I haven’t gotten a nights sleep without having a nightmare about you in here. I rush here every night to check on you, only to find you sleeping in the same damned place. No change. Every morning, I pray. I pray that maybe, maybe this will be the day you decide to forgive me and start living again but no, no every day you let me down you arrogant selfish bastard!” she says, slamming her fist down on the table once more.

“I can’t start living again until you do. I can’t. So if you want to drag yourself down to hell, you can be assured that you won’t be the only one going. It’s still better than letting you go out into the night to jump off of buildings like a madman. So if you think you’re winning, you’re wrong! Dead wrong” she says, running her hands through her hair and over her face, sending loose strands of her dark locks left and right and smudging her makeup with her wet tears.

“The only way I’ll lose, is if you get better. If you move on and live your life with me. Then I’ll lose, and we’ll both win. I’m a glutton for punishment Bruce. I want you to think on that. You’re not winning here. I only love you more for it” she says with a chuckle before turning and storming out, the same intensity that had brought her into the room escorting her out. A raging whirlwind of mad love.

Leslie looks towards Bruce, who gives the appearance of being nonplussed despite the effect that the woman’s words had on him. She turns away from the man and stands, moving out of the room while the orderlies enter, readying Bruce for the walk back to his cell. Jane was gone, having apparently let too much loose for one night. Leslie sighed, turning towards another doctor who was present in the hallway. “I want someone to look in on the councilwoman. This seems to be getting to her and...considering her past, combined with current circumstances?” she says, leaving the fact that there was no more Batman to fight her unsaid.   
  
The doctor nods.

“Understood Leslie. I’m going to sit down with her and do a quick evaluation” he says, the older woman nodding in assent as she moves away back down the hallway, her mind focused on getting some sleep. This had been much more taxing than she had originally expected, with Bruce being even more resistant than she had thought. ‘That’s really saying something’ the woman thinks, remembering how she had thought that Bruce would be troublesome, but not utterly apathetic.   
  
For the first time in her professional career she was considering abandoning a patient, and it hurt even more that that patient was Bruce Wayne. ‘Why do we all keep failing you Bruce?’ she asks mentally, wanting to sob as she leans against the wall. ‘You hate us so much that you want to fail yourself’ she thinks, finding that the most painful of realizations. 

Bruce Wayne had given up, and not a single person alive on Earth would convince him to begin living again.

**_Later That Night_ **

He laid on his bed, unmoving, his mind trying to focus on something far off, yet something within the cell. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but something was strange. Everything was off. He’d tracked and mapped every inch of that square that had become his life. He had come to the realization that there was no escape from this cell.

‘No tools, with the people I taught all my tricks designing this cell?’ he asked himself scornfully. It all came too fast, and for the first time since the night in the alley, he felt helpless. He tossed and turned on the bed, just like he did every night. He wanted a miracle. Something that would give him a way forward on his terms.

That was the most important part. HIS terms. He needed to feel in control, especially of his own destiny. While he hadn’t participated in the therapy they were forcing down his throat, he had come to some conclusions about his own life. While his crusade had been about his parents, avenging their murders, he had to admit that it had also been about himself. He couldn’t say that he’d had a childhood. 

Children grow up believing that their parents have their hands on the wheel. That they control events around them and as a result feel safe. Eventually children grow out of their delusions and realize that life isn’t so cut and dry. Bruce never got that chance.

He’d had it all torn away from him in an instant, a few pieces of lead tearing all of his childhood innocence and belief away in an instant. He’d grown up in that alley, and part of him had always known that he had become a cynic.

‘Why don’t they understand?’ he asks himself for what feels like the thousandth time. ‘I did, what I did so that nobody would have to fear some punk with a gun’

“We both know that’s not the full truth Bruce” a voice calls out from behind him, causing the man to sit up straight in bed. He broke out into a cold sweat, his mind telling him that he knew that voice despite not having heard it in so long. He looks around, his eyes scanning the darkness and realizing that it wasn’t quite as dark as it was before.   
  
‘The door’ he thinks, seeing the bright lights peaking out from around the edges of the padded entranceway. He sits up, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and standing quickly, his feet carrying him to the door with a speed he had originally only thought Barry capable of. “Come on in...the doors open” the voice says from the other side.

He takes the door handle, finding it strange that there was one where there hadn’t been one before. He twists it, expecting the steel protrusion to remain steadfast as the door had numerous times before. Instead it turns in his hand, and he pushes it open without hesitation.   
  
Light spills forth, blinding him momentarily while he steps forward into an open space that he can feel is larger than his cell by his senses alone, though the light was still blinding. Something was already familiar about the situation, but not from any time recently. More like a place as it used to be, and now how it was today.   
  
The light slowly dies and he can see more of his surroundings, all of which instantly pop out at him as being familiar. He was in his study, or more importantly, his study as it was when it was still his father’s. He turns quickly, looking towards the center of the room at the fireplace. The large painting of his parents stood over a roaring fire. That wasn’t what caught his eye however. What did was the turned chair, facing the fire. There was a figure sitting there, a figure he had seen sitting in that exact spot many times before but not in many years.

He stands, transfixed to the spot and unable to move, his mouth opening in shock. Slowly the figure turns, his face becoming visible as it moves around the edge of the chair. “Ahh, Bruce. Took your time didn’t you?” the man asks, standing and moving over towards the desk, leaning against it as he takes another draw of his pipe.

“Dad?” Bruce asks, shocked at who he was seeing. The man smiles and nods, looking up towards the portrait. “Well, I am the man in that picture. So I guess if the shoe fits” he says with a chuckle. Before he can consciously tell himself to move forward, he is, his body working on it’s own as he wraps his arms around the man’s shoulders. “Dad” he says again, the man hugging his son back, patting his back with his hand. “Hello son. It’s been a while” he says, letting Bruce pull back a bit.

All is silent between the two as they appraise one another before Thomas Wayne gestures towards the chair opposite his by the fire. “Mind taking a seat son? I think it’s time you and I had a talk” he says.

Bruce nods, not being able to bring out the words he desperately wanted to say, so he instead sits down, feeling like a young boy once more in the man’s presence. He was overawed just like he used to be by his father, a figure who was larger than life in every facet. Thomas sits down across from his son, drawing short puffs from his pipe before putting it out once and for all. “You know son, I find myself in the rarest of predicaments” he says, casting a critical eye at the other man, further making him feel small by comparison. 

He remains silent, waiting for his father’s words.

“I’m proud of you Bruce” he says, a smile splitting his face. “So damn proud I couldn’t really put it into words. You’ve grown up strong, courageous and moral. You do what’s right even when it’s hard, which, when it comes down to it, is what any parent would want their child to learn above everything else” he says, looking back towards the flame, his smile slowly flittering away. “But, no matter how proud I am of you, I’m also stuck wanting you to change. I don’t like the man you’ve let yourself become, or rather, I don’t like the fact that you’ve suffocated the man you’ve become under a facade” he says. “Maybe I don’t really know how to put it, your mother was always better with these things. What I’m trying to say is…”

“I lost you” Bruce cuts him off, looking forward at the man, saying those words as if they explained everything and made it right. Thomas nods, looking down at the ground. “I know son. I know. Neither of us wanted to leave you, especially like we did”.

“I don’t need to tell you any of this Bruce, but the world is a very mean and unfair place. It doesn’t care much about family or love. Right and wrong. But people Bruce, people should. That’s not my gripe with you. You understand right and wrong. Probably more than anyone else, even that man flying through the air. No. I don’t need to lecture you on something like that. But, you did forget something” he says.

“What?” Bruce asks, needing an answer from the man before him on where he had went wrong.

“Happiness Bruce. Happiness” Thomas says, reaching towards the desk and taking two small glasses, quickly filling them with scotch before handing one to his son and clanking them together. “I’ve been happy” Bruce says in defense of himself, sipping from the glass and enjoying the taste of the alcohol. 

“I don’t doubt that” Thomas says, drinking deeply before placing his empty glass down. “Everyone knows happiness. But, do you have it?” he asks, confusing the man.

“Don’t answer. I already know. I can see it in your eyes” he says, looking up at the portrait of him and his wife. “I remember when I proposed to your mother. Scariest moment of my life, but the next one was the happiest, well, until you came along” he says with a chuckle. “The look on her face, like a deer in the headlights? It was shocking to me when she began to cry. I was about ready to start sobbing myself I was so embarrassed. But then she was kissing me and saying yes over and over again” he explains.

“I asked her why she was crying. I was much younger than you are now, and utterly confused, and do you know what she said?” he asked, waiting for Bruce to shake his head in the negative. Thomas smiles slowly. “She said that she didn’t know. She said that she was just so happy that she needed to do something to let it out. Do you know what that feels like Bruce?” he asks, watching his son’s silence as it gives away his answer.

“I’ve experienced it multiple times. That overwhelming all encompassing happiness that just takes complete control. I lived for that feeling, and it always happened around you and your mother. The first time you giggled. The first word. Hell, watching your mother hold you, while she looked down at you like there was nothing else in the world Bruce. These little moments, they happened all the time. And when the times got dark? I latched onto them and remembered what kept me going. What keeps you going Bruce? In the dark times?” he asks.

Bruce is quiet, contemplative, but he does have an answer. “Christmas” he says simply. “Our last Christmas together. I..”

“Opened the train set that Alfred had tried to hide so well, and set it up about the tree before any of us had even gotten up” his father supplied with a smirk, resting his chin on his hand as he appraises his son. “When we came out, you were so engrossed in the train that you didn’t notice. We watched you for a solid ten minutes until Alfred coughed. You turned, and almost jumped through the roof” he says, both descending into laughter at the memory. “I thought I was in so much trouble” he says, shaking his head happily. “I wanted to discipline you, but your mother and Alfred talked me down, both saying the exact same words, “it’s Christmas”.

“But that memory is very old now Bruce. Practically ancient. What keeps you going now? The one memory that pops into your mind when you feel you can’t go on”.

“You and mom...in the alley” Bruce says, staring into the embers of the fire. “I thought that would be the one” Thomas says sadly, pouring himself another scotch. “It’s not good Bruce. Keeping that thought in your mind. I’m a physician of the body, but I’m not illiterate in matters of the mind. It tears men up. Turns good men bad and makes even the greatest warmth of feeling cold. Only darkness comes from darkness Bruce” he says.

“I could never forget” Bruce says, his voice cracking. “Everything was dark after that”.

“Not everything” Thomas reminds him. “Don’t you remember Andrea?” he asks, referring to the woman Bruce had been set to marry. “I seem to recall you being quite happy with her. I saw you, at our grave. You were in the early stages of carrying out this mission of yours, but she threw a wrench into the whole thing didn’t she?”

“You were also young enough to be distracted. I remember you crying at our tombstone, asking us for permission to move on with your life. You said that it just didn’t hurt so much anymore”. The memory brings Bruce pain and he winces at it, turning away. “I wish that the line between the living and the dead wasn’t so strong, as you would’ve heard us screaming to take her hand and run away. Get out of Gotham and never look back” he says. “But…” he sighs. “It didn’t work, and you retreated into what you knew. Darkness. You didn’t want to be happy I don’t think. Not after that. Maybe you took it as a sign. Or fate. But let me tell you Bruce, fate was not designed by God to leave man alone and hopeless”.

“Son..” he begins, reaching forward and placing his hands on the man’s shoulder. “You never needed our permission to be happy. You don’t need to keep living in that alley. It hurts, and it will never stop hurting, but that doesn’t mean that life has to be nothing but hurt. It doesn’t have to be one giant avalanche that ends with you crushed under the weight of your own despair. I want you to be happy. Happier than I ever was. To turn in bed and feel the love of a woman. To watch your children open Christmas presents. I want you to give up this crusade” he says, finality in his voice.

“I...I….”

“I can’t” Bruce finishes, ashamed of himself. Thomas smiles and shakes his head, seeing only one possible outcome. “Of course you can’t. You’re a Wayne. You can’t quit. One path is closed to you Bruce. Batman is gone. But crime can still be fought in another way. The Batman is dead Bruce, and you must find out what that means for yourself, but don’t you think, maybe even for one second, that you can pack away all that darkness with him? Leave him in the cave where he wants to be anyway, but go out into the light that Bruce Wayne must want. I see so much waiting for you there. In the prime of your life, and a desire, an unfulfilled as of yet desire to throw yourself into life with the same recklessness that you threw yourself into the night”.

“Bruce, please...do us this favor? If you really love us, and want to make our deaths right?” he asks, drawing the man’s passionate attention.

“Anything” he says, knowing that he would promise his father anything in that moment.

“Live again Bruce. Don’t let that man in the alley win” he says, the ecstatic smile dropping from Bruce’s face at the words. “Don’t let him kill my little boy too” Thomas says, tears falling from his own eyes as well while he draws the other man into a hug. No more words are said as both father and son hold onto each other, the light fading from the surroundings as Bruce finds himself being unwillingly pulled back to the cell that despite all the evidence to the contrary, he knew he had left for a time. 

He awakes with a start, his face coated with sweat and his body sore. “Dad?” he calls out, still far away from Arkham Asylum. The only thing sound that greats him is silence, though his labored breathing is enough to break it.

“Be happy” he says to himself, ruminating on the words that he knew had been his father’s. “How?” he asks himself, receiving no answer immediately. He looks down at the darkness and shakes his head. “I’m going to try dad. I promise. I’m going to try”.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie has a breakthrough

**_Apartment of Jane Napier, Gotham City_ **

She laid her head on her pillow, turned to stare out of the window at the building opposite her. She doesn’t see much except it and her hand, which lays on her pillow beside her. Lights are only just starting to go on, flickering to life in bathrooms and kitchens, men and women getting ready to begin their days. She wonders how many lean over and kiss their partners before getting out of bed, wanting to remind themselves that they weren’t alone.

She imagines herself in such a position, always having been an early riser. It used to be for her to do something nefarious, thoughts of mayhem and chaos on her mind which were aided by getting up early. Early meant giving the police just enough time to find what you wanted them to find, but not enough time for anyone to tamper with the scene.

She had had to wake up very early to pull off the smiling fish caper, something pretty stupid if you’d ask her now. ‘Making fish smile’ she thinks, rolling her eyes at the memory. ‘Why?’ she asks, trying to get back into the mind of her former self. She found that she couldn’t understand her rationale for dosing the fishermen with her gas or having them sell the “smiling fish” at improvised stands. 

She was happy to be clueless about her past motivations.

Nevertheless, she was still an early riser, but she hated it now. She just kept imagining herself, a silk negligee covering her body as she wakes up and stretches, her hand accidentally impacting against solid flesh. She’d smile, knowing exactly who it was before leaning over and sliding up in the bed, pressing her chest to the man’s back. She’d kiss his bare shoulder and neck, luxuriating in just being near him. 

“Good morning Bruce” she’d whisper, moving out of the bed slowly to allow the man to keep sleeping for a little while and moving into the kitchen, making the both of them a cup of coffee. Her dream was painful, too painful. Every morning since she had ceased to be the Joker, her hand had impacted against bare sheets, pulling away the mask of her delusions every morning. 

But every night, Jane Napier would go to bed, her heart filled with hope that this night would be different. ‘A girl can dream’ she thinks, sitting up slowly in bed and twisting her neck this way and that, working out the kinks in her upper back. “We have to get to the asylum” she says, speaking to herself and stepping out of her bed, moving the straps of her nightdress to the side and letting the fabric slither off of her body, leaving her only in her panties.    
  
It seemed as if that was all she did. Slept and went to Arkham. But she didn’t mind. She’d told Bruce she’d always be waiting, and she meant it. She steps into the bathroom, reaching into the shower and turning on the hot water before moving to the mirror and brushing her teeth. She smiles wide, giving her a shock as she lowers it again. She couldn’t help but shutter at how much she looked like her older self. 

‘It’s just been a hard few months’ she says to herself, slipping out of her panties and into the shower, jumping from the impact of the warm water against her skin. She quickly acclimates though, and she is soon rubbing the soap into her hands and then up and down her body. She closes her eyes, slipping off into the land of daydreams once more. It was easy for her, to dream and imagine, and it made her feel better to do so. As usual, her thoughts revolved around Bruce and were a continuation of her waking thoughts.

She smiles as her hands cup her breasts, sudzing herself up. She leans back against the wall, imagining that it was Bruce, having just waken up and deciding to join her in getting clean. “Mmmm” she moans, unable to stop the upwelling of guilt she feels at the fact that she was free and he was not. ‘That’s my fantasy gone’ she says, sighing and dropping her hands away from her body, focusing on getting clean.

It doesn’t take long, and she’s quickly out of the shower and patting herself dry, wrapping the towel about her midsection and putting her hair up in a bun. She hated doing so, prefering to let her hair hang free. People were more comfortable around her with her hair in a bun however, as strange as it sounds. ‘Makes me look more official and less like the maniac on the news’ she thinks, looking sadly at the mirror. She wanted to leave it down.

‘It most certainly wouldn’t help Bruce’ she thinks, not wanting to remind him further of her being the Joker. With a sigh she exits the bathroom and moves to her bedroom, dropping the towel and picking out her clothes for the day. ‘Bruce...just, get better’ she thinks, feeling all the aggravation of the rest but none of the hopelessness. She was in this with Bruce until the end.

There was nowhere else she’d rather be.

She was buttoning her blouse when she saw her phone go off on the end table. She reaches over, opening it up to see who had messaged her. Her eyes shoot open immediately a smile splitting her face and a nervous chuckle breaking out of her throat as she throws her jacket on, tucking her phone into her purse and doing a quick last minute check up in the mirror. Once she is assured that everything looks in place, she moves out of her apartment, locking the door behind her.

She had received a message from Doctor Leslie Tompkins.

“Come to Arkham. Bruce is talking” it said.

**_Arkham Asylum Interview Room_ **

He fiddled with his fingers uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do with them. Nobody seemed to mind though. Especially not Leslie who seemed to just be happy to hear the man’s voice. He wasn’t letting it pour out like many people would if they broke. ‘I guess that’s the difference’ she thinks. ‘Bruce hasn’t broken’.

Despite the man’s nervousness, his face remains passive, though the sadness can still be see in his eyes. “I...I don’t understand Leslie” he says openly, drawing the woman’s attention. “You don’t understand what Bruce?” she asks, the nurse, Zelenski she believed her name was, sitting off to the side, still beaming at the fact that she was the first person that he had warmed up too. “How everyone turned on me” he says, providing illumination on the issue. “They took the safety I provided, they reaped its benefits, and then threw me out”.

“Bruce...nobody has turned on you. You don’t know, being in here as you have, but Gotham? Gotham has never loved Batman more than she does now” she says, not having shared the information with the man before due to her belief in separating the man completely from the Batman. She pulls out her phone and goes to one of her bookmarks. She holds the phone out to the man, smiling teasingly in hopes of perpetuating the easy rapport she saw them having. “You’re not going to disassemble this and turn it into a weapon are you?” she asks teasingly, causing the man to smile lightly to himself. She hands it over, watching as the man takes it and reads over the article.

“Bruce Wayne to be honored by Gotham City” it reads, showcasing a giant statue that would be placed in the atrium of city hall. “There’s more” she says, gesturing for him to scroll down. “Press play on the video” she urges. “They even interviewed me and Gianna Mr. Wayne!” Nurse Zelenski says, blushing and looking away as he turns to her and nods. “Thank you” he says, watching as the interviews play. People and names he’d long forgotten, thanking him for this or that. Crimes solved, people saved and crisis averted. 

The Justice League was interviewed, and those hit him the hardest.

“Bruce is one of the greatest men I know, not because of his skills or intelligence, but because of his heart. Bruce is the most driven man I’ve ever met, and I know in my heart that he won’t quit. If you’re listening Bruce, we’re still with you” Superman says before the screen switches over to Wonder Woman, who still seems nervous in front of a camera. “Bruce is a founding member of the Justice League. In fact he encapsulates what we stand for. Bruce IS the League” she says.

Barry, J’onn and so many others speak up on his behalf, each using an anecdote to showcase how important he was to them and what he meant. “They didn’t turn their back on you Bruce” she says, taking the phone back. “They embraced you as you deserve to be. Batman means more to them now that he’s no longer an unknown quality” she says.

Bruce is quiet still but he shrugs, not exactly wanting to debate the point. “It was never about that” he says in response. “No, and that’s why it is about that now” she explains. “A hero isn’t a hero when he seeks the recognition for doing so Bruce”.

He looks off to the side and shakes his head. “Again, it was never about that. It was...I really don’t know what it was really about anymore” he says. “It’s always been about my parents. What happened to them, but, I’m not sure if I ever had an end goal. Maybe I wanted to find their killer, but it was only years later that I found him, and even then I more or less stumbled onto him” he says, opening up about his escapades from his point of view. 

“Crime will always be here. I was never going to eradicate it from Gotham. Especially not from Gotham” he says with a self deprecating smile. “I’m not Superman, and even Metropolis still has crime”.

Leslie nods, looking at the man and seeing the little boy she first encountered that day in her clinic. “You did a lot of good Bruce” she says. “So much. Nurse Zelenski is proof of that” she stops, gesturing towards the woman at her side. “But, it was never about an end goal. There could never be an end goal. Especially not for something like crime or war or famine. These things will always be here, and that is not to say that we shouldn’t try and make the world better” she says.

“We must struggle to make the world around us just a little bit better, and I truly believe that struggle makes us better as a people. The challenges faced by one generation to the next are cloaked differently. But at their core? They’re always the same. A struggle for self definition” she says. Bruce is staring at her, raptly following her line of argumentation.

“What do we stand for” she clarifies. “You know this better than anyone Bruce. You have struggled and have defined yourself to a razor edge. A man with lines that have moved very little, if at all. It’s a rare thing to see, and it’s beautiful in how it speaks to the power of the human spirit. YOUR spirit” she says, reaching across the table and taking the man’s hand in her own. She is shocked that he allows her, having rebuffed all previous attempts by anyone to do so. 

“You MUST keep inspiring the people Bruce. Gotham needs you. You still need her as well. So, does a mask really change that? Will taking it off make you move your line or alter your code? Will it accomplish what all of Gotham’s criminals and it’s hopelessness, Darkseid and demons couldn’t?” she asks, casting a skeptical eye at the man as she leans back and crosses her arms under chest, a smirk on her lips.

It’s clear that Bruce has come to a conclusion already, and his mind was made up. Still, he was held back by a simple question he couldn’t answer by himself, but needed to. ‘How can I be happy?’ he asks herself. 

He pushes the question away and returns to the here and now. “I guess I can give being Bruce Wayne a try” he says aloud, remaining quiet and aloof but still managing to open up. It was a compromise that she and most likely everyone else was willing to make. 

A knock on the door interrupts them, and Leslie scowls at the intrusion. “We’re busy” she shouts, eager to return to her interview. Her words go unheeded however, and Jane Napier enters the room quickly closing the door behind her. It’s only when she turns and encounters his piercing blue eyes boring into her that she stops. He was unreadable, but still different from how he had been looking at her previously. 

She was frightened and intoxicated by the possibilities held in those eyes. ‘Please let me tell our babies about that look one day’ she silently prays, taking a spare seat on the other end of the table. “Bruce, how are you feeling?” she asks, reigning in her desire for contact with the man and ignoring Leslie’s pointed glare at her. 

“I’m well. How are you councilwoman?” he asks in a neutral tone. She smiles at him, ecstatic at even this tame greeting. “I’m well. I’ve been worried about you Bruce” she says, listening to Leslie snort at how she’d phrased her reaction to the man’s internment. “It’s true Mr. Wayne” Nurse Zelenski says. “I mean, you know how often she was here, but not all of the time” she says. “You weren’t awake for all of the times she came at night just to sit outside your cell” she says. 

Bruce smiles at the woman and turns back to Jane, the smile remaining on his face. She knows that it’s residual, coming from his desire to validate the woman who had been so kind to him from the beginning, but she can’t help but swoon at the feeling of a smile being directed towards her.

She blushes however, feeling embarrassment at just how brazen in her love for the man that she had been. ‘Maybe that’s only because the crisis has passed...hopefully’ she thinks, knowing that the truth always came out in times of fear. ‘Bruce, I’m never letting you out of my sight again’ she vows to her love and herself.

“Thank you for you concern councilwoman” he says, allowing her to reach forward and place her own hand over his in much the same way that Leslie had. She fully expected to feel him pull away, and she tried to prepare herself for the hurt that would inevitably come as a result. She can see that he wants to, and she sense the initial pull that she felt would take his hand away from hers. He stops himself though, and allows the contact to continue.

It was the first consensual contact between the two that he had EVER allowed her, at least in the sense that he was responding to her touch. He turns his hand and squeezes it, and at that moment she didn’t care that he was probably doing it as a result of not having had physical contact for so long. As she turns his hand and takes it again, squeezing it, the only thought that enters her mind is that finally, finally, her dreams, the only bright spots in her life, might be coming true.

‘I’ve got you under my skin’ she thinks with a smile, though it is set against the backdrop of her past. She remembered a explosive death trap in a warehouse. The wheres and whys had long since ceased to mean anything to her, but she remembered taunting him, singing the Sinatra song as the deathtrap went round and round. She meant it thought, and it was still true. She had Bruce under her skin, though it went much deeper than that.

He was pooled deeply in her heart. 

“Well, this is all rather...well” Leslie says, folding up her papers and putting them off to the side as a blushing Katherine turns to the side, smiling to herself and hiding a giggle behind her hand. Bruce slowly pulls his hand away, seemingly oblivious to the effect he had on the woman, who’s hand reaches for his unconsciously, Jane pulling it back when she realized that she couldn’t push it too far and too soon. 

She would play it slowly, but not too slowly. 

“Is there any possibility of me leaving her soon?” he aks curiously, causing Leslie to look down at her folder and sigh. “Well, Bruce we’re not too sure if it’s such a good idea for you to leave here so soon” she begins tentatively. “We’re afraid that, with your record of being stubborn” she says, casting a critical and accusing eye at the man who courteously looks embarrassed at all the trouble he caused. “There’s also the fact that you have committed some crimes Bruce” she says warily, causing the man to stir. Leslie puts her hands up to preempt his outburst. “I support why you did what you did Bruce, and I understand some corners needed to be cut. Nobody in their right mind wants to prosecute you. But there are a few voices, mostly the unsavory” she says, “who are trying to pressure the city” she says.

Jane nods, having personally chewed out a local alderwoman who had even suggested bringing charges against the man. “We had to make an agreement that the only way to prevent that from happening is if you continue to receive psychiatric help and continue therapy” she says.

Bruce is quiet, conceding the rationale behind such a decision. He was afraid that he’d become too docile, accepting of his condition at the moment, and part of his mind whispered that he was still under the influence of their medication. He pushes the thought away however, finding himself too tired to fight. For once in his adult life, he would place his full trust in someone other than himself. 

“It won’t happen Bruce” Jane interjects, promising the man that she would protect him. She smiles shyly before looking up at the man again, the smile still on her face but a loving determination in her eyes. “I’ll protect you” she says.

He nods, not ready to deal with the full implications of what the woman is saying, part of his mind frightened of and repulsed by the all consuming love that this woman had for him. He would cross that bridge when it came to it. 

“Is it possible for me to get out patient treatment?” he asks, his mind set on returning home. “I...I need to work on forgiving certain people” he says, his mind on all of those who he had seen work against him. This would be the biggest challenge for the man most likely.

Leslie seems to be thinking about it, mulling the idea over in her mind when Jane interjects. “I think it is something that is very feasible Bruce” she says. “With Leslie and her team helping you, and me overseeing you” she adds, a teasing smile she hoped he found alluring, on her lips. “We can talk about it” Leslie says, not enjoying how easily the younger woman was able to go over her head. “But for now, let’s just have a week or so to think on it and figure it out alright Bruce?” she asks, standing and gesturing for the orderlies to open the door. “Let’s go outside for a little while Bruce” Jane says suddenly. “Some fresh air can do you well, and the guards and I will be with you” she says, the man’s eyes lighting up in excitement at the idea.

“Dammit…” Leslie says, again finding herself disliking Jane Napier, but enjoying the joy she saw in the man’s eyes. Could she deny him this chance for a creature comfort they all got to enjoy?

“Fine, but only for a little while. Being inside so long isn’t healthy”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce comes home

**_One Week Later_ **

He was sitting on a chair, his legs crossed and a suitcase tucked along the side. He hadn’t put many things inside of it, not having had much in his room to begin with. He was pretty sure that it was there just for show, as was the suit that he had been able to dress in. He recognized it, trying to place the exact store in downtown Gotham he had bought it from. He couldn’t remember too well, but he was sure that it had come from the manor. 

It didn’t take long for him to come to a conclusion on who had sent it for him. 

‘Alfred’ he thinks, his face twisting into a grimace. The last time he had seen the man was on the first day he had come to the asylum, though apparently the old butler had come multiple times since then begging to see Bruce. He waived him off every time, the nurses having to comply with his refusal to see him. Looking at it from another perspective, that of Leslie Tompkins who had regular contact with Alfred, it was a living hell for the man who had raised him.

He didn’t know what to do when it came to Alfred. On one hand, he didn’t think he would ever be able to trust the man again. The scope of his betrayal seemed so large and encompassing, that it almost eclipsed all the good he’d done. Almost. The good memories and the knowledge of the man’s sacrifice, a sacrifice taken for a child that was not even his own, still weighed heavily in the now former vigilante’s mind.

That was another issue for the man to resolve. Did he really mean that he was done? Done with Batman, done with all that he had built up for himself? Could he really wrap up his entire life, throw it out and begin anew? He had promised that he would, but now he was doubting how much of that had come about from a desire to be free again, and how much of it came from conviction. 

‘There are quite a few obstacles to starting all over again though’ he thinks, dismissing the idea of returning to the cowl as soon as he remembers that everyone knows who he is. He couldn’t take on the mark of the Batman again. His effectiveness had come from his anonymity and his ability to move around without suspicion. With that advantage gone? He wasn’t sure it was even feasible to continue being a vigilante, let alone the Batman.

‘For better or worse, it’s over’ he thinks, taking a strange and almost foreign feeling of joy from that fact. He smiles to himself and shrugs. “I guess I’m just Bruce Wayne now”.   
  
“Well, I for one don’t see a single thing wrong with that” a voice says to his front. He looks up slowly, first seeing a pair of red high heels that give way to two shapely pantyhose covered legs. He continues upwards, settling on the face of Jane Napier, who’s blush and smile seemed to run concurrent to her being around Bruce. “See something you like?” she asks teasingly, trying to reign her affection in but not being able to do so completely. He gives her a blank stare in return, his eyes moving over towards his suitcase.

She frowns and licks her lips, trying to wet her mouth from the nervousness she was feeling. ‘Cool it’ she reminds herself, setting herself down on the chair besides his. “How are you feeling?” she asks, wanting to engage in conversation, even if it was of the most trivial variety. “I’m fine” he says, keeping his words simple and his responses short. She nods to herself, not exactly knowing where to go from there. “You don’t make this easy do you?” she asks, laughing lightly to herself. 

“Make what easy?” he asks, genuinely curious, his mind being far off somewhere else. “Getting close to you” she says honestly. “But, if I can get you here I’m sure I can at least become your friend” she says, not intending to remain just his friend for long. “You’re still the Joker” he says warily, eyeing her from the side. She huffs, a little angered by his words. “No, I WAS the Joker. Just like you WERE the Batman” she says, noticing how the man’s back stiffens. She is quickly on damage control. “Please…” she says preemptively, keeping the man from standing up and walking away instantly. 

He slowly lowers himself back into the chair, her hand remaining on his shoulder as he does. He couldn’t tell anyone why he had sat back down, but something in her voice had convinced him to do so. “I...I’m not good at this. Things were easier when I was blowing you a kiss from across the room, ducking one of your batarangs” she says, chuckling at the memory. “But, it wasn’t exactly healthy for either of us. Can we agree on that?” she asks, drawing a slight nod for the man who was increasingly curious as to where this conversation was going.

“In a way, we fed off of one another. The Joker fighting Batman, the Batman fighting Joker. All around and round until we didn’t know left from right. All we did was fixate on each other, something I’m not necessarily adverse too” she says, looking down and away. ‘Dammit. He knows how you feel about him. Why does he still make you blush?’ she asks herself. 

“What I’m saying is that the people we were needed each other to justify the other’s existence” 

“And now that they’re gone, our link is severed...Mrs. Napier” he says, reinforcing his point by using her name. She is taken aback, not appreciating the point he’d made at all. “Not exactly” she says sternly. “I mean, we are two forces Bruce. Two forces drawn together, no matter what or who we are”.

“I read a lot of philosophy in here, did you know that?” she asks, admiring the turn of the century architecture that lined the building’s ceiling. “Well, their big thing is all about balance. I don’t follow too much of it, Confucius was a little wacky, but I do know that you and I are still drawn together, and maybe that Yin and Yang stuff might have something to it”.

Bruce is quiet, the woman’s words sinking into his mind. “Maybe...well, I think that Jane Napier and Bruce Wayne need each other too. It’ll be better too with the, you know? Negative stuff behind us” she says, reaching for his hand but stopping just short and resting it on his thigh. “I...I lo…” 

“Mr Wayne! Your cab is here!” a voice calls, an excited Katherine Zelenski rushing over, causing Jane to jump back, removing her hand from Bruce’s thigh. “Ohh, I’m sorry. Did I interrupt something?” she asks, a mischievous smile on her face as Jane moves away, blushing even more fiercely. She didn’t know why she was embarrassed, it sure as hell wasn’t because she was hiding how she felt. ‘Practically all of Gotham must know’ she thinks. No, she was embarrassed and angry that the moment they were sharing had been destroyed. ‘Not destroyed’ she reminds herself. ‘Paused. Yeah, paused’ she thinks, trying to put a positive spin on it. 

Bruce nods, smiling up at the nurse who had been an almost constant addition to his life. “Thank you Katherine” he says, standing up and grasping his suitcase. Before he knows it, the woman has jumped forward and wrapped her arms about his body, squeezing him tight. “I..I haven’t had a real chance to thank you Mr. Wayne but...thank you. I know it sounds so small to say in comparison to what you did, but thank you. Thank you so much” she says, beginning to cry while Bruce stood awkwardly in her embrace. He looks to the side at Jane, seeking some sort of help from his onetime nemesis. She smiles teasingly, jutting her chin out at the woman in an attempt to tell him to say something. 

‘Ohh this is a family scrapbook moment if I’ve ever seen one’ she thinks, loving Bruce’s discomfort at that moment. Finally Bruce brings his arm up and puts it across the woman’s back, patting her with his hand. “No need to thank me” he says, gently pushing the woman back and nodding. “If umm, well, you or your daughter ever need anything, let me know” he says.

Katherine nods, pressing a kiss on his cheek which only serves to further embarrass the man. “Mr. Wayne, if YOU ever need me, I’ll be there” she says with a smile, causing a strain of womanly jealousy to flare up in Jane. She rolls her eyes however, knowing that Katherine was a hopeless flirt. Bruce nods, letting a small smile of his own before he makes towards the door, his police escort waiting for him.

Jane opens her mouth, wanting to ask just one last thing, and she saw her opportunity slipping through her fingers. She needed to act, and fast.

“Dinner!” she shouts, stopping the man in his tracks. He turns to look at the woman curiously, his expression almost causing her to back down. Until she sees Katherine gesturing with her hands, urging her on. “I mean, maybe dinner and a movie one night” she says, feeling more confident as she went on. “Just one date. I would say that I would pay but...you are Mr. money bags” she says with a chuckle to mask her nervousness. She fiddles with her hands, interlacing her fingers between one another as she awaits his answer. ‘Please...just one date’ she thinks, feeling the moments tick by as if they were centuries. 

“Mr. Wayne?” Katherine asks, drawing the man’s attention away for a moment, a distraction he is glad for. “Do me a favor? Take Ms. Napier out” she teases, winking towards the dark haired woman. “She’s changed, a lot. She’s done nothing but good for this city, like you!” the woman says excitedly, making her case for the woman.

Bruce looks back at Jane who keeps a hopeful smile on her face. “Alright” he says, causing the woman to heave a massive sigh of relief, something both notice. “Maybe next weekend? I need some time to get used to how the world is now” he says, a light smile on his face. It was yet another issue he didn’t know how to resolve, and something else he wasn’t sure if he’d go through with. 

“That’s fine!” she says, overly excited at his finally saying yes. “Take all the time you need. Umm, well, you have my number” she says with a shrug. “I programmed it into your phone..under Councilwoman Napier!” she says with a smile. “You know, in case you need me” she adds. When she had programmed her number, she toyed with putting something cute or flirty down, but eventually decided against pushing it too far.

Bruce reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone, indeed seeing that a number had been programmed into it since he’d received it back. He can’t help but smile and shake his head, replacing the device into his pocket. “You really are persistent” he says, half admiringly. “Only when I really want what I’m after” she says.

“Mr. Wayne, we really should get going. Some of the boys are a little nervous” a officer says, walking up towards the group. Bruce nods and turns to both woman, looking for another word to say. Eventually he settles on “goodbye” before turning and moving towards the exit, a police escort already waiting. 

“Hmm” Katherine says with a smile, watching as Jane glues her eyes onto Bruce’s retreating form. “What?” Jane aks curiously and slightly defensively. “Nothing. I just think he likes you, at least a little bit” she teases. “Well...I hope so”.

Nurse Zelenski laughs out loud. “You don’t have to tell me that” she teases, poking her new friend in the side. “You’ve been acting as if you’re already picking out a wedding dress, and you’ve been that way ever since...well, you know. The whole “HaHa” thing” she says, using her code word for Jane’s past as the Joker.

“Well, what makes it different now?” Jane asks, wondering what the woman was driving at.

“Well, the fact that you aren’t a maniac annnnnnd, the fact that you most certainly have a chance now. He was checking out your legs” she teases. “Pfft, please. He was just looking at them because there isn't much else to look at. I’m as flat as a board” she says in response, all the while casting a smirking glance down at her own legs. “False humility doesn’t look good on you Jane” Katherine teases. “And it’s true. You’re not a stacked babe like me” she says, causing Jane to laugh aloud and scoff. “But you’ve got more than enough to attract a guy. Especially YOUR guy”.

Jane stands there, a smiling self satisfaction in her heart. ‘Your guy’ she thinks to herself. ‘I like the sound of that’.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

It wasn’t a long ride, but it was one filled with contemplative silence. The cab driver hadn’t said anything, though he kept glancing back in the rearview mirror at the man. The two police officers, part of his “temporary protection detail”, flanked him on either side, and hadn’t tried to engage him in any non-essential conversation.

Bruce Wayne’s exit from Arkham had been done discretely, leading to there being zero press coverage or reporters outside. ‘Have to deal with them soon though’ he thinks, watching as the police cruiser in front of the cab turns onto the lonely road leading up to the manor. ‘First day out. I wonder if Alfred actually left’ he ponders to himself.

“Almost home Mr. Wayne” the cabbie says, tipping his hat. “I uhh, don’t wanna make a big deal of it but, well, you saved my bacon once. Firefly was gonna roast me. You pulled me out of my last cab. So, yeah thanks and all” he says, turning his eyes back onto the road. Bruce just nods, pushing a fifty dollar bill that he had had in his wallet into the front. “Thanks for the ride” he says, the officer to his right stepping out of the vehicle after it parks in the driveway in front of the manor. 

“Welcome home Mr. Wayne. Now, for a few weeks, or maybe longer, a patrol car is going to be placed out front with officers on foot roving the grounds. All for your safety of course” the officer says, stepping back to allow Bruce to exit the cab. ‘Also to make sure I behave’ he adds mentally. 

“If you need anything, come to us. Don’t try and do it yourself alright?” 

“I’ll try officer. Thank you”.

The younger man smiles, reaching in to take Bruce’s luggage. “Let me take…”

Bruce stops him, grasping the handle of his bag himself and pulling it out of the car. “No thank you. I can handle it” he says, nodding once more to the man before moving up the driveway and onto the front steps of the manor. It felt...strange to be home, though sometimes he felt that his family’s ancestral home was more of a cover for his real home. ‘The cave’ he thinks. ‘I wonder what they did to it’.

He keeps moving up the stairs, opening the door and entering Wayne manor. It smells and looks unchanged, the cleanliness proving to him that Alfred had not heeded his words about his dismissal. “Master Bruce” a voice says from off to the side, the butler having entered from a side hallway. Both stand stock still, taking measure of each other, and while Bruce’s face remains impassive and stoic, Alfred’s nervousness was as plain as the nose on his face.

Bruce looks to the side of the door, noticing for the first time the numerous bags that were stacked up against the wall. They were Alfred’s.

Alfred opens and closes his mouth multiple times, not sure of what to say or do in this situation. He had been fired, or technically so. But he had refused to move on. He had remained at Wayne Manor, continuing his duties and hoping to push away the memory of his son in all but blood in chains. He had visited every day, and was in constant contact with doctor Tompkins. He had known that Bruce was coming home today, and had to fight his impulses to be there at the hospital when he walked out a free man. 

He couldn’t, his fear of Bruce’s last words being repeated keeping him inert. He couldn’t leave, and he couldn’t see Bruce. Not if he was at risk of never being able to atone for his failure. He couldn’t bare it.

“Are these your bags Alfred?” Bruce asks, looking towards the stack before he turns his gaze back towards the man. “Why yes Master Bruce” he begins tentatively, feeling hopeful since he hadn’t been called “Mr. Pennyworth” again. The words sent a chill up his spine at remembering them.

“I was...well, I packed...in case your words at Arkham still stood sir”.

Bruce nods to himself before he reaches down and grasps one by the handle. Alfred fully expected that he would throw it out of the door, feeling that he deserved such a response. Instead Bruce begins to move towards the master staircase, the two bags in hand. “I’ll put them in your room then” he says simply, not looking at the man to notice his shocked and then ecstatic expression. A tear falls slowly down Alfred’s cheek, and he moves forward to assist with the bags. Bruce stops and turns. “What’s for dinner Alfred?” he asks.

Alfred is taken aback, not having been asked that question in such a long time that he felt rusty in response. “Well, I’ve mostly been eating sandwiches but..I am sure that I can whip something up for us” he says happily. Bruce just nods, his gaze travelling towards his father’s study. He seemed very far away at that moment, and Alfred was about to draw his attention once more when Bruce begins ascending the stairs again. “Sounds good Alfred”

‘Yes’ Alfred thinks, turning back down the hall and moving into the kitchen. ‘It does sound good’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo...please tell me what you guys think! Also, thinking about adding a love triangle to this. Honestly, want your opinion. I don't want it to be cliche haha but there are a ton of women who would have been happy to be with Bruce Wayne, and now that he doesn't have the big hangup, would they be circling the wagon so to speak? I have one woman in mind to compete with Jane.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old flame enters the scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys aren't losing interest are ya? Getting stingy on reviews. haha

**_The Former Site of the Batcave_ **

It was empty. The whole cave. Well, not the whole cave as they had left some things. The computer remained and its light blue emanating light cast a haunting glow over the entire area. They’d also left the giant penny and the T-Rex. He didn’t know why, but most likely because they would’ve been too difficult to move. Everything else? Gone.

The suit cases were all empty and the evidence locker was almost completely bare. They’d taken everything that he could use as a weapon or that would remind him overtly of Batman. “At least they left the Grey Ghost’s outfit” he says to himself with a sad smile, picking up the grey hat and inspecting it. ‘Different times’ he thinks, his mind going back to watching the vigilante superhero on screen. Simon Trent had been second only to his father in being a role model to the young boy, and the scripted heroics had influenced him to a greater degree than anyone could ever had guessed.

“I wonder what Trent would do in this situation” he asks himself, thinking back to when he had met the actor and collaborated on a case despite his insistence that he was “just an actor”. He was an actor, but he was also a real life hero. 

“Master Bruce?” a voice calls from the top of the steps. “Are you down there?” Alfred continues, moving down into the gloom. His footsteps echo off of the concrete and bounce about the cave’s walls. It was much louder now that there was less to block the soundwaves or bend them. He is slow to answer, wishing that the butler would just leave him alone for a little while. Ever since he had returned to Wayne Manor the man had been hovering over him, waiting for the slightest sign that his assistance was needed. ‘He means well’ Bruce says to himself. “I’m down here Alfred” he says back.

“Ahh, I had a feeling” the man says, moving into the dark and joining his surrogate son. “It isn’t healthy for you to be down here Bruce” he says tentatively, not wanting to upset the man with his words. That was another change. Alfred was very careful in everything he said and did. He knew that deep down, Bruce still hadn’t forgiven him. He didn’t blame him. Not at all. He still hadn’t forgiven himself.

Bruce just nods, continuing to look everywhere and anywhere but at him. “Leslie said to come to terms with my past. Unfortunately, that now includes Batman”. The words hit the older man deeply, and he looks away. ‘Unfortunately’ he thinks, ruminating over how Bruce had used the word. ‘He misses it’.

“Well, I don’t quite think you should look at it as unfortunate Master Bruce” he says. “Now you have time for other pursuits. Things that you really enjoy. Perhaps you can take up another hobby? Model building, painting or any of the other skills you’d want to cultivate”.

“I know twelve languages, and can work with another six if I’m slow. Three of them are dead languages. I am a master in every known martial art. I can use a sword, I can repair vehicles and I can hack into the most secure computer systems in the world. Tell me Alfred, what other skills can I cultivate?” he asks, an unintentional edge to his voice. He sighs and moves away towards the computer, dialing it up and picking a random file to read. Alfred dutifully follows behind him, his hands clasped behind his back.

“Well Master Bruce” he says, pushing down his pain for the moment at seeing the man so rudderless. “Those things were all down for a goal. Your goal. But perhaps, and this is just the opinion of a silly old man, the best things in life are worth doing simply for their own sake”.

Bruce is quiet, moving into the chair and sitting down, not sure of what he was hoping to do or why he was accessing old case files. His system had been neutered, all of the material having been copied and stored on every law enforcement databank in the United States. ‘Probably the Justice League too’ he thinks, unable to stomach the thought of Mr. Terrific sitting at his computer and data mining everything that was there.

He opens an old case on the Riddler, going over everything that had gone on during the six months in Gotham where the Riddler had been the most feared villain in Gotham. It was strange to say the least, but the man had become positively unhinged before his death. 

“Do you...well, that is to ask if you have any idea on something you might like to dedicate your time to?” Alfred continues on, apparently not having stopped speaking when Bruce had tuned him out. He stops, closing out the computer when he realizes that there was nothing more he could do at it. While it was still a state of the art computer, it had been data capped. No more input from him that wouldn’t be monitored by an outside source. He couldn’t even use it to become a replacement for the Oracle. 

“Well, perhaps I’ll take a more vested interest in Wayne Enterprises” he says, not quite sure why he was talking so openly with the man. “It might be a good thing. I’ll give Lucius a call and…” he stops, watching as Alfred becomes pale and looks away once more. “What?” he asks curiously.

Alfred sighs, visibly bracing himself for the news he was going to have to deliver. “Doctor Tompkins and I wanted to wait to tell you this, but, you have been...frozen out of the company” Alfred says. “What?!” Bruce asks angrily, his rage quickly overtaking him. “What the hell do you mean frozen out? It’s my company! My father built that with his own two hands!” he shouts, Alfred seemingly shrinking under his verbal onslaught.

“I know Master Bruce, and I am so sorry. I fought against it! Bitterly. Councilwoman Napier and I were viciously opposed to the city injunction, but her power of persuasion has limits” Alfred pleads. “A judge ruled that since you had used so much of the company to support your crusade, that you couldn’t be allowed to have anything to do with it anymore. Initially, the city wanted it taken away completely, however, nobody wanted to allow that. So a deal was made”.

“Without my knowledge, input or consent” Bruce seethes.

“Well, yes” Alfred says in response. “But you were indisposed Bruce! You needed to get treatment. Now, the company is still Wayne Enterprises, and you are still the major stock holder. I worked with Councilwoman Napier to ensure that that was made clear. You have veto power and your family’s name will never be removed from the company, but...you can’t exercise the power you did before Bruce. Lucius Fox…”

“Now owns my father’s company” he says, shaking his head in utter disappointment. “No! He is its steward. You know as well as I do that he will contact you and meet with you about practically every decision he makes for the company. This is for your safety Bruce” he implores, the other man turning away from him.

“I can’t be Batman. I can’t be the Bruce Wayne I want to be. What does any of this matter anymore?” he asks himself rhetorically, though Alfred tries to answer anyway. “It does matter Bruce! It does. Think of what your father would want. He would still…”

“Don’t tell me about what my father would want” Bruce says warningly, practically growling at the man in his anger. He’d never spoken to him that way before, and the strength of his words frighten the butler who already felt himself to be on thin ice with the man. “I’m..I’m sorry Master Bruce. Forgive me” he says, backing off from his intent to argue his case with the man.

“You’ve been working closely with councilwoman Napier then” he accuses, not questions. “Yes Master Bruce. She has your best interests at heart believe it or not. I was just as shocked as you undoubtedly are” the man chuckles, not realizing that Bruce was more angered by the fact than happy. “She seems to be able to speak of nothing but you” Alfred continues, not noticing the maelstrom raging within the man. “Absolutely smitten. She smiled up at your parents’ painting when she was in your study and she confided in me that she hopes a picture of you and her will sit next to it one day”.

“She really is rather pretty as well” he adds. “She has a way with words and she is constantly on some new crusade. She’s like you in many ways Master Bruce..”

“She’s NOTHING like me!” Bruce snarls, turning in his chair and frightening Alfred. “She’s still the goddamn Joker, and the fact that nobody can see that she’s playing the long game is ridiculous. Even you sided with the goddamn Joker against me. Think about that Alfred. Think long and hard on that” he says before stopping, fixating on something else that Alfred had said. “She was here? You allowed her into my home? You allowed that psychopath into my family’s home?” he asks, advancing on the man.

Alfred goes wide eyed at his behavior and begins to stutter, realizing the gravity of his mistake. “Master Wayne, I assure you that she was being watched by me every second! She only wished to help draw up a contract for Wayne Enterprises!” Alfred protests. Bruce doesn’t hear it and moves past him instead, advancing up the stairs with Alfred following closely behind him. He was happy to get him out of the cave, but he wasn’t happy how it had happened.

‘He’s been coming down here after every session with Leslie’ he thinks, reflecting on what they must’ve been speaking about behind the closed doors of Bruce’s study. He wished that he could help the man more, but he wasn’t letting him. “Master Bruce, surely you know that you could trust me in such matters” he protests, a little upset by the man’s reaction to his words. ‘All I wanted to do was convince him to paint or write or something’ Alfred thinks exasperatedly. “You’re wrong Alfred. I don’t know if I can trust you. Not anymore” Bruce says while grabbing his coat off of the rack. He was calmer now, resigned even. 

It was not something he liked to see on Bruce’s face.   
  


Defeat. 

He ignores the man’s last words and instead decides to ask what he is doing now. “Master Bruce, where are you going?” he asks, moving to try and at least help the man put on his coat. He is shrugged off, and ignored until Bruce gives an answer while halfway through the door. “Going to the movies” he says gruffly, needing space away from the man.

Alfred doesn’t catch on immediately and smiles, happy that Bruce was taking initiative on getting out of the manor and doing something that would be entertaining. “Ahh! Yes Master Bruce, any idea of what you wish to see? I can call ahead and see what is being shown”.

“No thank you” Bruce says, not forgetting his manners even in his anger.

“Well I suppose anything is good enough. Or rather bad enough” the Englishman says, having a rather obvious disdain for modern cinema. “I’ll bring the car around and we’ll be off in a moment”.

“I’ll have the police escort take me” Bruce says as he calms down. “I..I need some time alone Alfred” he admits. “I just need time alone” he repeats, moving out of the front hallway of the manor and into the day. He looks toward the waiting police cars and waves, wanting to ask them to bring him into town. After all, they were tasked with “protecting” him, which he really knew was to watch him and make sure he didn’t do anything they wouldn’t like. 

‘If they have to watch me twenty four seven then they should make themselves useful’ he thinks, not seeing how Alfred watches him sadly from the doorway. He understands, or at least he tries. “Very well Master Wayne but...call if you...well if you need anything” he says, knowing in his heart that he’d be the last person Bruce would call if he got into trouble now.

“It used to be different” he says to himself. He closes the door after watching the police officer nod and round up a few other officers to drive the man into Gotham. It would be the first time Bruce Wayne would be back in Gotham city proper since he’d been unmasked.

Alfred just wished he was there with him to mitigate the effect of the changes that had come over the city. He hoped Bruce would be able to handle it.

**_Gotham City_ **

He sat in the back of the police car, watching as the city and its people moved by. Miles and miles of concrete streets and buildings. He wasn’t used to the city from this height. Ohh sure, he’d driven along its roads and seen its sights. He was much better acquainted with the skyline. Jumping across buildings and soaring through the darkness. Its alleys were also very familiar to him.   
  
The police cars drew attention, one in front and one behind, and soon people began to put one and one together. The people began to cheer and wave, shouting out as they looked in and saw Bruce Wayne in the back of the police car. He didn’t offer much except a slight wave and smile, not wanting to be noticed at all. ‘Another victim of Jane Napier’ he thinks. ‘My privacy’.

He didn’t know how he felt about the woman. Or anything anymore if he was honest with himself. He had promised his father that he would try and be happy. He had promised Jane that he would go on one date with her. He didn’t know what any of that meant, and now that he was out and marginally in charge of his own destiny once again he wasn’t even sure if he could do either.

Jane was the Joker. No matter what. He looked at her and saw that same maniacal grin and the pain she’d caused. Murders could never be pinned on her, or so the courts said, but it was clear that she’d done damage. People, places and possibly even leaving a mark on the whole city. ‘A mark she has worked to wipe away’ a voice whispers in his head, sounding surprisingly like his father. 

“We’re here Mr. Wayne” the officer says. Bruce couldn’t remember his name but he nods and waits for the young man to get out and open the door. “Thank you officer” he says while he gets up and walks towards the theater. “Well, I’m coming in with you Mr. Wayne while the rest stay outside and watch out for undesirables” he says, mentioning the villains of Gotham city without directly mentioning them. Bruce nods, not caring one way or the other as he begins to walk towards the theater. 

He stops when he feels a tug on his coat, coming from closer to the ground. He turns and looks at a little girl, deep blue eyes staring up at him from under blonde curls. “Mister Wayne” the little girl says with a nervous smile. Bruce smiles and moves onto his knees, looking at the little girl at almost eye level. “Yes? And what’s your name sweetie?” he asks. “Sally. I..umm” she says nervously, reaching behind her. His training makes him paranoid, but she brings out a stuffed toy instead of a bomb as he had been expecting. “I just wanna thank you” she says, looking down and blushing. “I..I love Batman. He’s a hero!” she says excitedly. “I’m going to miss him, but I’m happy you won’t get hurt anymore” she says placing the stuffed Batman toy in his hands. He looks at it, studying the homemade nature of the toy before looking back at the little girl.

“Well, thank you Sally. You’re a very sweet little girl” he says, handing the toy back to her. “Sally! Sally!” calls a woman who hugs the girl close to her, moving onto her knees. “Where did you go? You can’t just run off on me sweetie” she says, almost crying as she checks the little girl for injuries. “It’s fine mommy. I was with Batman” she says, making the woman notice Bruce Wayne for the first time. “Ohh...ohh lord” she says, staring in awe at the man. “It’s okay ma’am. She was safe. She didn’t go far, but I don’t think she should do something like that again without permission” he teases, looking towards the girl who looks away.   
  
“Well..thank you Mr. Wayne” she says with a smile. “For everything” she says before moving off, giving the grateful man some space. “Bye Mr. Wayne, we love you!” Sally shouts, waving from behind her as the two move into the faceless crowd. Bruce smiles to himself, feeling surprisingly good about himself for the first time in a long while. 

“Out of the cowl a few months and already you’re turning into another Superman. What gives?” a voice from behind him asks, sounding familiar. Bruce turns and sees the woman who spoke, wearing a coat, hat and glasses that obscures his view of her. Still, he knows exactly who it was, and he hadn’t even thought of her since Alfred had said she’d been by to visit.   
  


“Selina” he says, shock registered in his voice. “The one and the same. You know, you were a lot easier to get in touch with when you were wearing the cowl you know?” she asks with a smile. She moves forward and languidly wraps her arms about his shoulders, placing a kiss on his lips before he can even react. “I missed you Bruce” she says with a teasing smile that reminds him of the past.

It was comforting.

“Well, I…” he starts, not knowing what to say at that moment.

She places her finger on his lip, quieting him while she smiles. “Don’t say anything. Just take a lady to a movie huh? If your escort doesn’t mind me butting in” she says, gesturing towards the police officer who tries to pretend to not see their flirtations. 

“I think I can arrange it” he says back. She laces her fingers through his and they walk into the theater. It was a surprising boon to him, feeling something that was familiar. Everything had changed. Except Selina. She hadn’t changed. Same teasing and full lips, and same glimmering mischievous eyes. Same power to seduce and push him wherever she wanted.

It was good to feel like the world hadn’t ended for one.

**_Apartment of Jane Napier_ **

She was sitting, and nothing else. Just sitting, her eyes focused on the phone in front of her. She was waiting for a call. Not just any call though, HIS call. ‘He has to know’ she thinks to herself. ‘He has to know that I’m just sitting here waiting for him. Just call me Bruce. Please. Let me be there’ she thinks, praying to a God she wasn’t sure to have existed in her life until this point.   
  
“If you’re bored just call me” she says, suddenly standing up and beginning to pace. “I’ll come over and we can play Battleship. Watch a movie. Bake cookies. Anything you want. Just call me over” she says aloud to herself, needing to fill the silence with something. She meant it to. She’d do anything to be near him.

“It’s been a few days Jane. Relax. He said he’d take you out. Give him time” she reminds herself, her eyes travelling to the open closet where the dress she’d bought specifically for their date. She’d spent hours in the store, agonizing over what he’d like to see her in. She wanted seductive, but not slutty, a fine line to walk for the woman.   
  
She’d settled on a light blue dress with an open back and slightly plunging neckline. She was happy with it, but she’d hoped that Bruce would be happier with it. “Is it overdoing it for dinner and a movie though?” she asks herself again, glad that she’d bought a much more conservative and casual sundress. She looks back at her phone, seeing no new notifications. “Dammit” she says to herself, having been distracted for a moment.

She flops onto her bed, moaning in exasperation. Business in the city had slowed down and she felt that life itself was grinding to a halt. “Bruce” she thinks, remembering how it had felt to be inside of his home. She smiles while remembering the painting of Bruce’s parents and how she’d told Alfred that she wanted to one day have her and Bruce in their own portrait next to it. The butler had been surprisingly understanding in regards to the woman’s affection for him. 

She already loved Bruce’s parents. She couldn’t explain it but she had such an affection for them despite them being long gone. It was how they looked. Their smile. Their clear affection for one another. There was also the fact that they were Bruce’s parents. 

‘I can see where Bruce got his looks from’ she says wistfully. ‘Though his eyes are all his mothers’ she thinks, her mind wondering to what their own children would look like. She imagined a little girl with Bruce’s intensity and seriousness, only for her to descend into giggles as Jane pulls her back, her father coming over to join in, tickling her belly. 

“Martha, Thomas” she says aloud, turning to look at the ceiling. “I promise you, I'll take care of Bruce. I'll always be there for him and to try my best to fill his life with joy. I want nothing more than to love your son, so if you’re listening, and if you can forgive me, put in a word with the big man and give him a little push towards me? Please?” she asks, looking back at the phone and scowling.

“Or at least make him send me one simple text!” she shouts in anger, burying her face in a pillow and screaming in frustration.

**_Back in Gotham City_ **

“That was actually pretty good. For a war movie” she says, wrapping her arm around Bruce’s. “It was, but...the company was better” he says, looking down on Selina who only further cuddles into him. “Well, I won’t argue on that. I am pretty great” she teases, causing Bruce to laugh loudly.

She loved the sound of it and she wanted to keep hearing it. ‘As much as I want’ she says to herself, laughing along with him. “Looks like your escort is still waiting” she teases, gesturing at the police officer who waves over at the man. “Ready to go Mr. Wayne? Will the lady be joining us?” he asks.

“I’m afraid not officer. I’m rather tired” she shouts back before turning to Bruce. “And a lady doesn’t go home with a gentleman on a first date” she says. Bruce is confused by this and voices it. “We’ve been on a few dates before this” he says with a chuckle. “No” she says, shaking her head. “Not with you. Not with Bruce Wayne. And...well, I guess I really like this new guy. He smiles and laughs. He actually responds to my teasing and while it may be too soon to tell, I’m thinking it might work with him this time” she finishes, punctuating her words with a fierce kiss.

Before he knows what’s happening she turns and walks away. “I’ll call you soon lover boy” she shouts, disappearing into the crowds without a second look back. He continues to smile, not knowing what was coming over him. He absent mindedly checks his pocket, wanting to ensure that it was still there. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time she took my wallet' he thinks, feeling it full in his pocket, though his fingers close on a piece of paper. He pulls it out and begins to read it.

“Knew you’d look. If a bat can change, why not a cat?” it asks, a imprint of her lips made in red lipstick on the paper below her words. He folds it back up again, replacing it in his pocket. “Ready to go Mr. Wayne?” the officer asks from behind him, having spent most of the night watching the couple.

“Yeah. I’m ready to go”.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bliss and a Quasi Betrayal

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“You seem off Bruce” Leslie says, sitting across from the man in her own armchair. “What do you mean?” he asks curiously, having been talking about something with the psychiatrist. He couldn’t remember what it was, his mind being much farther off somewhere completely different. WITH someone completely different.

‘Selina’ he thinks again, the name bringing a smile to his face. He’d gone out with her multiple times since their first impromptu date, each making him fall deeper and deeper into the woman’s snare. They weren’t an item yet however, not how he wanted them to be. Selina insisted that they take their time. “It doesn’t mean we can’t have fun lover” she had whispered in his ear before kissing along his jawline and reattaching her lips to his own.

The memory made him smile even wider than her name did, something Leslie notices instantly. She puts down the notebook and crosses her arms under her chest, a teasing smirk on her lips. “Tuning out again Bruce?” she asks. “Who is she?”

“Well….I didn’t intend to see her again” he starts cautiously, not sure of how to really broach the subject. “I sort of just...bumped into her. I didn’t think it would matter. I thought it would be the same old dance around each other but it was different this time” he starts, leaning forward and leaning his head on his hands. “I don’t know…”

“You don’t know what Bruce?” she asks, moving forward and placing her hand on his shoulder. “I told you about my dream?” he asks again, not exactly remembering if he had told her about the conversation he’d had with his father. ‘The medicine is still making me groggy’ he thinks. “You did” she says, placating him before he continues. “I told him that I would try. He wants me to be happy but I’m not sure if I’m doing it right. If I’m making the right decisions. Everything is so obscured now and I lack a distinct sense of purpose” he says, standing up and moving towards the window looking out over the grounds of Wayne Manor.

“Last night, was the first night that I didn’t want to go out. Didn’t feel the urge to put on the suit and be Batman. And it’s killing me inside. I feel guilty Leslie” he says. 

She smiles and stands up herself, walking up to the man until she is standing directly behind him. “Guilty for what Bruce?” she asks. “Being happy?”

He turns, his eyes filling with unshed tears, tears that she knew he wouldn’t allow himself to shed. He nods, supplying all the answer she needs. “I still remember you when you were twelve Bruce” she begins. “The sad and introverted little boy who didn’t want to talk to anyone. The little boy who had seen the worst the world had to offer and had forgotten the good he’d seen. But then I saw an amazing metamorphosis” she continues, moving up beside him. “That little boy became the good he had lost sight of in the world. He strived for it and fought so that others could have it, even if he himself was denied it”.

He listens, not saying a word as she talks. “If you ask me Bruce, the last person that needs to feel guilty about being happy? Is you” she says, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. He sighs and before she knows it the man envelops her in a hug, squeezing the old woman tight to him. “Thank you Leslie” he says, having needed to hear her words for a long time now. She pats his back affectionately, ecstatic that Bruce Wayne would not be a patient she failed.

“You still didn’t tell me who this mystery woman is” she chides, causing the man to roll his eyes and smirk, letting the woman go. “Come on, tell me!” she says excitedly. “Well, I’ve been seeing her on and off for years before this. It’s Selina Kyle” he says.

Leslie stiffens and looks away, not watching as the man’s smile falls away from his face. “What?” he asks. “Nothing, nothing. I’m glad that you’re happy Bruce” she says, trying to rouse false optimism. “Leslie” he says, narrowing his eyes. “Be honest with me. I’ve been doing that for you, so do so with me. I’m not made of glass. I won’t shatter with what you’re telling me now. Especially not after everything else” he says.

Leslie opens and closes her mouth before closing her eyes and sighing. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to see Ms. Kyle” she says. Bruce is silent, watching the woman and keeping his outburst inside. 

“Why?”

“She will remind you too much of your past” she begins. “She was a criminal secondly, and as far as we know is still a criminal. She hasn’t changed Bruce, and I’m afraid that you’re using her as an anchor to your past. It isn’t healthy” she says warningly. 

Bruce turns away and shakes his head, folding his arms behind his back. “I disagree. She always had a way of pulling me out of the darkness, but the problem was she was only there for a few moments. Now? I think there is a possibility of commitment” he says.

“Can you trust that? There has been other times where you thought that was possible” she says.

“It’s different this time” he protests.

“How do you know?”

“Because...because I need it to be goddammit” he shouts, angered by her distrust of the woman.

Leslie nods, hoping in her heart that it was the truth. “I hope so Bruce. But, I don’t want you to just move into what is easy and familiar because it is easy and familiar” she says. “I think it’s best if you find someone who can move into the future with you and grow, not pull you back into the past”.

“Thank you for your concern Leslie”.

She is silent, and it takes her a minute to get out the next words. “Have you spoken at all to councilwoman Napier?” she asks, Bruce sighing at her question. “Even you?” he asks. She is quick to try and explain herself. ‘I can’t believe I’m sticking up for Jane Napier’ she thinks before putting her argument into words. “I just think it’s an avenue worth exploring. She has been a tireless advocate for you. Can you honestly say that she hasn’t helped you?”

“I still have these thoughts that it’s a trick. She’s playing the long game” he says.

Leslie can’t help but chuckle to herself. “She’s really playing it out then. Saving you from self destruction. Reforming Arkham. Fixing our tax code. Lobbying for a new orphanage. Is there a nefarious plan behind her saving kittens from trees too?” she asks, a teasing lilt to her voice. 

He doesn’t answer, instead allowing her to continue.

“She represents a new start Bruce. She wants to move forward and she wants to move forward with you. She makes sense” she implores with a light smile. Bruce mulls over her words but doesn’t add anything to fight her argument. “I don’t trust her”.

“A perfectly natural instinct” Leslie says. “But maybe that’s another reason to at least befriend her. You know, see the good in people via Jane Napier” she says. “She’s also easy on the eyes. She’s pretty. And I’ve never met a woman who was so smitten with a man quite like her. It would be nice of you to at least take her out on that date you promised her” she says.

‘Ohh, I’d forgotten about that’ he thinks turning to smile at Leslie. “I’ll think about it” he says, meanwhile thinking, ‘not a chance’. 

“Good. A gentleman never breaks a lady’s heart like that Bruce. She’s been hoping for you for a while so at least give her a chance” she says while reaching down to the table to pack up her materials. “So, I’ll see you in say...ohh, three days?” she asks. “Three days? What happened to daily?” he asks curiously as she picks up her briefcase. “Well, I think you’ll keep for a few days without having to spill your guts all over again to me” she says, moving into the atrium.

“You’re excelling as usual Bruce. I think you’re coming to terms with everything quite fast and quite well. So, I think you can have a little break. Besides, I need a little vacation myself” she says, letting the man help her with her coat. “Well, I was thinking about going away myself with…” he begins, cutting his sentence off as Leslie looks at him, a quirked eyebrow changing her facial features.

“With Ms. Kyle I assume..well, you’re a big boy Bruce. You know what’s best for you in that department. But you know how I feel and who I’d suggest if you were my son” she says, feeling him to be just that in quite a few ways. “Thank you Leslie. I’ll see you soon” he says, opening the door for the woman and closing it behind her.

“Ahh, Master Bruce, your therapy session is over. How did it go?” Alfred asks, moving into the room with practiced ease. “It went well Alfred, though I’m sure you were listening the entire time” he says in response. A somewhat easier rapport had been established between the two. While they were nowhere near as close as they used to be, much to the butler’s dismay, Bruce had at least begun talking to him again. ‘I just hope that it gets better’ he thinks, still having something he wanted to say to Bruce. 

‘Better be careful with it. He needs to know I’m on his side’ he thinks as the younger man turns and begins to move back into his study. “Master Bruce, are you still planning on going upstate for the weekend with Ms. Kyle?” he asks, following behind the man. “Yeah. Why?” Bruce asks, somewhat defensively. “I was just curious I suppose” he says. “Although, I must be honest with you Master Bruce, I agree with Doctor Tomkins. Are you sure that Ms. Kyle is the best choice for such an excursion? As I do recall she is much more accustomed to….well, creature comforts and high class accommodations” he says. “A cabin in the woods doesn’t fit that” he says.

Bruce rolls his eyes and keeps moving towards the study, not wanting to have this conversation with Alfred. He was bored. Beyond bored. Just sitting in the manor, talking to Leslie. The constant police presence was also beginning to grate on him. He needed some time away, and he wanted that time to be spent with Selina. “I’m going Alfred, and nothing is going to….”

Just then his phone vibrates, receiving a text message. He opens it and sees that it’s from Selina. He can’t help but smile at the fact before his smile falls away at the contents of the message. “Something wrong sir?” Alfred asks, worry creaking into his voice.

Bruce doesn’t answer, reading the message again. “Sorry sweetie. Something came up. Gotta work. Talk soon” it said. ‘Work’ he thinks, knowing what that meant. He can’t help but feel down, Leslie’s words coming back to him. ‘Is she right?’ he asks himself, remembering that Alfred was there. “Well, the trip is cancelled anyway” he says, feeling that the whole conversation was now a moot point. 

Alfred smiles, though he has the tact to keep it hidden. He had been thankful for the woman’s visit to the manor while Bruce was sick. He had been thankful for her care for him. But he knew, knew in the very core of his soul, that the woman would not be good for Bruce. She might even have been his end. ‘She’d pull him right back in, thinking that things could go right back to what they were when they never could. He would die’. 

“Well, I guess I’ll just turn in then” Bruce says, making to go upstairs, all of the fight taken out of him at the powerlessness he was now feeling. “Wait, Master Bruce!” he says, starting up the stairs after him. “I have a roast ready for dinner. Perhaps I could invite Master Grayson or Ms. Gordon. Even Master Drake” he says, wanting to mend the broken relationships between the man and his former partners. “That’s not a good idea Alfred” he says. “I want a clean break from the past and it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to see them. I don’t want to ever see them again Alfred” he says, turning and making his way back up the stairs.

“Master Bruce you simply cannot be alone all the time!” he shouts. “And you cannot keep punishing me by refusing to try and li…” he starts angrily before being interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. “Ohh blast, who could that be?” the butler asks himself, expecting it to be the police officers assigned to guard Bruce. ‘For all the good it’s done’ he thinks, realizing that no villain dared to touch Bruce Wayne at this point. 

He opens the door, ready to shout at the officer and give him a piece of his mind when he is met with an unexpected face. “Ohh!” he says, smiling and turning his head slightly. “Master Bruce, we have company!” he shouts with a smile.

**_A Few Moments Before, Outside Wayne Manor_ **

She was fiddling with her blouse buttons, curious if she should keep the third from the top unbuttoned. ‘No, it’s too much. Just two buttons. Just two’ she says to herself, buttoning it back up and ignoring the curious stares of the police officers who mill about outside. 

‘Will he be happy to see me?’ she asks herself. 

‘No, but we’re going to change that’ she says, looking down at the bag she’d brought. She’d brought a little of everything she could think of to try and have fun. As juvenile as she knew it was, she had no clue how to seduce a man. At least not as she was now. When she was Joker she was assured of herself, the confidence of a psychopath. 

She’d brought wine, cheese, a romantic comedy though she knew men hated those. She wasn’t much of a fan either, but she figured that half of the date was setting the mood. ‘I hope he can understand that I just couldn’t keep waiting for the call’ she thinks, reaching forward and pressing the buzzer, ringing the bell. 

She reaches up once more, ensuring that the bun in her hair was still done. “Ohh I wish I could just wear it down” she says, smiling wide as Alfred opens the door. “Mr. Pennyworth” she says with a smile. “Master Bruce, we have company!” the man calls before turning back and bowing slightly. “Ahh Councilwoman Napier. And please, you may call me Alfred” he says, opening the door and allowing her to enter. He closes the door behind her, quickly taking her bag and smiling at the contents. “Who is it Alfred?” Bruce asks tiredly, moving back down the stairs and stopping as he sees Jane. 

“Hi Bruce” she says, not knowing why she suddenly felt so shy. ‘Stupid. I shouldn’t have done this’ she chastises herself. “Councilwoman” he says, remaining polite. He didn’t know why, but the woman produced a maelstrom of emotions within him, and he couldn’t quite place them all in the category of hate or anger. She just smiles, removing her coat which is quickly taken by Alfred and put on the rack. “I was just speaking with Bruce about tonight’s menu. Would you be open to joining us for dinner?” he asks, making Bruce feel like he was a little kid again with Alfred making the calls.

“That would be nice Alfred. I came to check on Bruce” she says, looking back towards the man who looked more like a deer in headlights than a former vigilante. He is about to protest when Alfred preempts him. “Excellent. Please, the roast is ready” he says, gesturing for the two of them to move into the dining room.

‘Great’ Bruce thinks to himself as Jane moves beside him, following the Englishman closely.

**_Two Hours Later_ **

It was one of the quietest meals she’d ever had, and despite its discomforting nature she was ecstatic. ‘My first meal at Wayne Manor’ she thinks, smiling even wider as she looks across the table to see him. ‘With my Bruce’.

“It’s a very good roast” she says, putting down her utensils. “Yes, Alfred is a good cook” Bruce replies, keeping the conversation civil. “So, what have you been doing with yourself?” she asks curiously, not having been able to speak with him since he’d left the asylum. “I hope you’ve been enjoying yourself a little” she says. He is quiet for a minute before he looks up at her. “Why are you here Ms. Napier?” 

“Please call me Jane” she implores, hating how her formal name sounded on his lips.

“Alright” he says irritated. “Why are you here Jane?”

She shrugs and smiles, trying to keep everything on track. “Because you owed me a date and you haven’t called” she says simply. At that moment Alfred enters with the wine, pouring another glass for each of them. “Thank you Alfred” she says, smiling up at the man. “My pleasure madam”.

Bruce is quiet again, appearing quite sullen. He drinks his wine quickly, having already drank quite a bit. “I...I don’t think this is a good idea” he says suddenly. “What isn’t?” She already knows what he’s trying to say, but she is trying to make him get the words out. If she could get him to make an argument, she could make a counter argument, and she knew that she’d win. 

“Us” he says. “I still see the Joker when I look at you. The madwoman and the woman who took everything that mattered from me. I’m fighting really hard to remain calm and collected, but I just feel anger whenever I see you”. His words pour out like a fountain, the wine being a remarkable loosener of the tongue. 

She looks down, knowing that Bruce had felt that way but unable to fully look him in the eyes while he said it. ‘He has a right to feel that way’ she says before pushing the chair back and moving over to the side of the table. Bruce watches every movement, ready for the moment she would attack. It had played out so many times before, he couldn’t see this time as being any different. He pushes his own chair back, ready to get up and meet the woman head on, but she stops him by pressing her hands on his shoulders. “Sit down and let me have my say” she orders, surprised that the man listens as he stays put.

‘I wish I would’ve worn that dress now’ she thinks, lamenting the fact that she was still wearing her work pantsuit. She moves to his side and slithers into his chair, sitting sideways on his lap. The man makes to move, apparently not being comfortable. “Stay still and let me talk” she orders again, bringing her hand up to caress his cheek. “You know, this is what I’ve been thinking about for a year” she says. “How you and I could come together and just be Bruce and Jane” she teases. “I hated that I had to do what I did Bruce. I do. And never forgive me if you want. All I want is to spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and trying to fix it” she says.

Slowly she reaches out and takes his hand, moving it up to her own cheek. She places her free hand over it and smiles, nuzzling against the contact that was feeling less and less one sided as time went on. “Tell me, does it feel like I want to hurt you?” she asks, closing her eyes and laying her head on his shoulder. 

“I...I…”

“I love you” she whispers, opening her eyes and looking up at the man. The words seem to have a physical effect akin to being shot on the man, who struggles against her for a second before her next words stop him. “Don’t run from my love. Don’t be afraid” she says. “I know I haven’t earned yours yet, but you’ve earned mine a thousand times over”.

“I’m not asking for much Bruce. I know our date deal fell through” she says, eyeing him accusingly. “But, I just want one chance. Just one. If you don’t feel something at the end of it, I’ll go away and I’ll never bother you again. One last deal” she says.

He didn’t know why he was listening to her. He couldn’t tell you why he was letting her sit in his lap and touch him like that either. ‘The wine’ he thinks, momentarily going over the idea that she laced it with something. ‘No, just...you don’t handle, white wine well’ he reminds himself, having forgotten over the years how to handle alcohol through lack of consumption.

“What are you suggesting?” he asks,

“For one night” she whispers, teasing her finger through his hair. “Tonight” she says, making her case clearer. “I’m yours. Just for this one night, you pretend that I’m the woman you love, or at least have affection for. You’ll let me love you. In the morning, you’ll tell me where we go from there. If you feel something...I stay. If not...I go”

“All or nothing?” he asks, finding her proposal strange and interesting, a usual admixture with the woman in his lap.

She nods and giggles. “It always is with you and I’m tired of waiting. I want you and you’re not making it easy so I need to step up my game” she teases, rubbing her finger along his chin before moving up to tease his lips. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you love me so much?” he asks, genuinely confused. She just smiles and shrugs. “Why does the moon affect the tides? Why do birds eat worms? I have no idea other than that you are you and I love who you are” she says, leaning in to leave her lips an inch away from his own, urging him to take the last step. “What do you say Bruce? Just one night isn’t too much to ask is it?” she teases.

It all came back to him. The losses, the sadness. The rudderlessness and the feelings of being powerless. Here was a chance to bury it. Get even in some way. It all collided with the wine and the loss of his mental barriers. Not to mention the fact that she was just so alluring and she smelled so nice. ‘She is pretty’ he thinks, leaning in himself and pressing his lips gently to hers. 

He would never know about the explosion that happened at that very moment in Jane’s mind, the sensation of feeling his lips on hers sending the woman careening into orbit. ‘He’s mine!’ she shouts in her mind, not worried about premature celebration as she wraps her arms about the man’s shoulders. 

Bruce himself wasn’t thinking much, but he did feel strange. ‘Of all the things Jane Napier is, I didn’t expect her to be a good kisser.

**_Later_ **

She was atop him, straddling his waist as she gyrated her hips against him. “Ohh Bruce” she coos, her hands resting against his chest, rubbing his pectorals. Bruce himself was moaning in pleasure, his hands resting on her waist, pressing up into her. They were both close to their climax, increasing their tempos in tandem.

“Jane” he moans out, catching the woman’s attention as she leans down and presses her lips against his, keeping up her movements below. “Say that again” she asks lovingly, confusing the man whose mind and face were now contorted by pleasure. “What?” he asks breathily, moving back to kiss the woman who shudders as a wave of pleasure shoots through her. “My name, Bruce. Please” she asks, and the man understands. “Jane….” he whispers lovingly, throwing himself into the abandon that the woman inspired within him.

‘Is this madness?’

Jane can’t take it anymore, and she spasms in his arms, letting her excitement completely over take her. “Bruce!” she screams out, thrusting her head back and her chest forward as her orgasm overtakes her, Bruce’s following almost instantly after as she clenches about him. He holds her tight to him, sitting up in bed and containing her wild buckling while they both ride the wave of their pleasure down. 

Their heavy breathing is all that is heard, though Bruce’s is muffled as he lays his head on her chest. She is smothering his face and head with kisses, rubbing the back of his head and threading her fingers through his hair. She is smiling widely, utter bliss reflected on her face as tears slowly slide from her eyes. 

They fall back onto the bed, Jane refusing to leave Bruce’s arms while she lays her head on his shoulder. “Pull the blanket up” she says, feeling the slight nip in the air from her nudity. Bruce reaches down and grasps the fabric between his fingers, pulling it upwards until their bodies are covered to their chests. Jane clings to him, rubbing idly over his chest. She stares up at him, adoration in her eyes. “Would it be too much of a stroke to your ego if I said that that was the best I’ve ever had” she teases, causing the man to laugh. She loves the sound of it, and at that moment wouldn’t trade it for the world.

He pulls her in tighter, an act which makes her want to throw herself over him and do it all again. ‘Too sore’ she thinks, indeed feeling worn out. ‘Until tomorrow that is’ she vows to herself already planning on running out to buy some lingerie.

“I won’t let it go to my head” he says, looking up towards the ceiling. She frowns and reaches up, turning his face back down towards her by placing her hand on his chin. “Hey, lover? Everything okay?” she asks.

“Yes…”

She rolls her eyes and moves up until they’re face to face. “I don’t believe you” she says, cutting right into his very soul with her words. “I’m just confused. I don’t know what to do” he says, being too tired to keep playing games. “Then let me do your thinking for you. I know exactly what you should do” she says, taking his hand and moving it to her hip, lacing her leg through his as she begins to kiss him.

“Alfred won’t be mad at the mess right?” she asks in between kisses, remembering how they had begun undressing each other halfway up the stairs. ‘I have to go out and find my panties’ she thinks blushingly. ‘Pretty sure they might be on the bannister. My bra is certainly on the chandelier” she thinks, knowing that would be something she’d do. “He won’t. It’s not the first time” Bruce says with a smile. “Well, it better be the last” she warns lovingly and possessively. “Well, don’t do it with anyone else but me” she says making it clear. “Because I certainly don’t want that to be the last time you growl against my skin” she teases.

“I wasn’t growling” he protests.

“You wanted me like a piece of steak sweetie” she says, continuing on. “And I loved it!” she says, letting him lean into her neck to kiss her. “You talk too much” he says. “You better find a way to shut me up then” she whispers softly as he comes back up and smiles over her. He kisses her lips once more, and suddenly, Jane didn’t have any words to say.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce commits to two courses of action

**_The Next Morning_ **

Bruce was up first, as usual, though he couldn’t really wake up. He was stuck in that time between sleep and being awake. He sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows on his thighs as they supported his head. ‘What am I doing?’ he asks himself, feeling the first stirrings of guilt over sleeping with the woman who was still in his bed. ‘What about Selina?’ he asks himself, wanting to double up under the covers and never see the light again.

He looks back over his shoulder at Jane, her hair splayed out behind her as she laid on the pillow. Her mouth was slightly open, her breaths coming out evenly and constant. He can’t help but smile at the sight and he leans down to pull the blanket back up over her and pecking her forehead. She smiles in her sleep and nuzzles into the bed.

He looks towards the end table besides the bed and sees his phone. He didn’t know why but he had the urge to check it, something telling him that there was something he needed to see. He turns it on and sees that there was a voicemail and a text message. The voicemail was from Lucius Fox, and the presence of it sent chills down the man’s back.

He plays the message, holding it close to his ear and listening as the old man who was “in charge” of his company speaks. “Bruce, I’m sorry for not speaking to you sooner. I thought you’d need some time to yourself. I’d love to catch up on a personal level sometime. If you’d like” he says, sounding nervous. Bruce shakes his head and closes his eyes, not wanting to delve into his feelings on the loss of control he’d experienced in regards to Wayne Enterprises. “But, business first. Someone, and by the fingerprint that they’d left I’d say SHE, was able to make off with a few development plans. Apparently someone broke into our research and developement wing last night and…”

The man’s words fall off as Bruce takes the phone away from his ear and finally ends the voicemail call. He feels that his mouth has gone dry, and with nervous trepidation he pulls up the other message. 

He already knew who it was from. 

“Bruce, I’m sorry. I know you won’t believe me, but I am. I’m leaving Gotham. Never coming back. Someone paid me good money to do what I did and I just need a fresh start away from this city. I wanted..well, I don’t know what I wanted. I love you, but we’d never work Bruce. I hope one day you can be happy, and I hope what I stole wasn’t too much of a set back to you” she wrote, finishing the text.

He felt numb.    
  
There was no tracing the message. Hell, there wasn’t a chance that the police would catch her. If he was still Batman he could, but in his heart, he just didn’t have the drive. Wayne Enterprises really wasn’t his concern anymore and he knew it. He also knew that Luthor was the one who had paid Selina to steal the new research that had been done into new polymer armor. He’d been planning on using it to reinforce his suit, but now he was sure that it would be sent to the military in one way or another. He couldn’t bring himself to care too much about it. He knew that Wayne Enterprises could bounce back easily, and in fact would. 

He didn’t know how to feel about Selina. He felt hurt and betrayed, knowing that he had once again been played like a fool despite having fully believed that this time had been different. ‘She didn’t take my wallet’ he thinks. ‘She just marked down all the information on my access cards’.

It all made sense to him now, and it hurt all the more. He keeps sitting on the edge of the bed, not noticing how Jane frowns behind him. She begins to reach out towards his side of the bed, patting it repeatedly in search of him before stopping at the realization that he wasn’t laying down. “Bruce?” she calls out tiredly, receiving momentary silence in return. “I’m still here Jane” he says, his voice devoid of emotion. “Are you okay?” she asks, groggily sitting up and letting the blanket fall off of her, exposing her nude form. She opens her eyes and sees his back. Yearning for contact with the man, she moves on her knees until she is resting against the man’s back. She wraps her arms about his chest and lays her head on his shoulder, nuzzling him repeatedly.

“It’s easier to sleep when you’re beside me” she says. “First time in a long time that I didn’t have nightmares” she chuckles, kissing his shoulder. “I never want to spend another night without you” she admits with a blush. “I don’t know how you do what you do to me, but you make me feel like there isn’t a care in the world” she finishes with a smile, unable to stop the truth from tumbling from her mouth.

Bruce turns his head and looks at her, intending to say something. He sees her smile though, and it stops him in his tracks. He had seen it multiple times before, countless times even. Twisted in homicidal glee or in maniacal laughter. Now? It was just a smile. A rather pretty smile. ‘A gorgeous smile’ he thinks turning to grab the woman by the waist and pulling her into his lap. She gasps and giggles aloud. “Bruce! What’s gotten into you?” she asks, her lips being smothered by the man’s quickly enough.    
  


“I guess I don’t know” he says honestly, stroking her cheek. She smiles up at him. “I think everyone has leaned on you for so long, that it wouldn’t be too much to ask that you lean on someone else and leave the knowing to me for a little while longer” she says, reaching up to caress his face as well. “Well, as long as you don’t lead me into an amusement park filled with death traps…” he says with a smile.

“How about a regular amusement park?”

“What is it with you and amusement parks? I always wanted to know that” he says curiously. “Well, it fit the clown motif for one” she says. “And secondly, I always loved them when I was little. I guess I just felt happy there. I didn’t have a good childhood”.

Bruce nods, having always assumed that. “You once said if you were going to have a past you would prefer it to be multiple choice”. She remembers what she’d said that night to him. “Well, how about I fill in those bubbles for you? Truthfully. Just not today Bruce” she implores. “I...I just want to enjoy what we have for a while without baggage...if we have something” she says, hopefully, remembering their deal from the night prior.    
  
Bruce is quiet, reflective even. He knew that this was one of those moments in his life that would be of massive importance later on. A turning point. He wasn’t going to waste it lying. “I feel something” he says simply.

‘Well, it wasn’t an I love you like you wanted’ Jane thinks to herself while pushing herself up to straddle his waist again. She wraps her legs about him and her arms are quick to follow. He watches her, enjoying how her body moves and stretches before him. ‘But it’s a beautiful start’ she finishes mentally while she presses her lips to the man. Slowly they fall back onto the bed, Bruce’s hand moving up to cup her rear end, squeezing and lavishing attention on her.

“Ohh…Bruce, feeling a little frisky?” she asks teasingly, indeed feeling the stirrings of desire herself.

“How can you tell?”

“Shouldn’t we get breakfast? First?” she asks.

Her protests are silenced by his lips, the pleasurable feelings of his caresses bringing out moans of pleasure instead of protests of hunger. “We can eat a little later. You’re not planning on going anywhere are you?” he asks, a teasing look in his eyes.

Jane’s breathing increases with her excitement and she knew that if she could help it she wouldn’t leave that bed in a month if she could. 

“Nowhere at all Bruce. Nowhere at all”.

**_A Little While Later_ **

Alfred was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking some tea and halfheartedly reading the newspaper. ‘Not that I can focus on the damn thing’ he says, folding it up and tossing it into the trash. ‘Rubbish belongs in the rubbish’ he adds, having been reading a rather antagonistic news article about Bruce. 

“Well, I suppose they aren’t coming down for breakfast” he says, looking towards the now cold pancakes and eggs. “Though, I’m sure they’ll be quite hungry later” he chuckles, throwing out the old food as well. It had been a good morning, though it was most likely so after spilling over from a good night. He was good at watching things without being seen, a skill he’d acquired from his years in the SAS and his classical training. 

He’d seen how unsure Bruce was, and he’d seen how absolutely sure Jane Napier was. “They’re a good fit for this brave new Batmanless world” he says, having washed and cleaned both of their clothes already. He will never forget the sight he’d been greeted to that morning, of Jane’s black lacy bra hanging from the chandelier in the main hall. He’d had to get a ladder to get it down. He chuckled at the memory, and would undoubtedly continue to chuckle at the memory through the years.

“Alfred” Bruce says, walking into the kitchen wearing his pajamas and a robe. “Ahh Master Bruce. Good morning, or should I say good afternoon?” he asks with a teasing smile. Bruce looks out of the window into the day and sighs. “Well, good afternoon then” he says, grabbing a glass and taking some water. He guzzles it down with eagerness, having been quite thirsty. “And where is Councilwoman Napier…” he asks before being cut off by the woman entering, herself wearing a t shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms, both borrowed from Bruce. She swam in the items, them being three of four sizes bigger than her lithe frame was. The pants were held up only by having the drawstrings fully tightened and tied about her waist. She also wore a robe over her ensemble, though it wasn’t tied as Bruce’s was.

“Still here Alfred” she says with a smile. “Good morning” she states. “Ahh good morning Jane. How did you sleep?” he asks, watching as Bruce moves over to the table and pulls out a chair for her. She forgets the presence of the butler for a moment and smiles at her lover, pressing a kiss to his cheek before sitting down. Bruce remains behind to push her chair in, placing his hands on her shoulders to rub them. She coos and moans, leaning back in the chair and almost melting at the attention.

“Can I get you something to eat Jane?” Alfred asks teasingly, watching the two with undisguised happiness. Bruce looks at him and smiles lightly, shrugging as if to say, ‘I don’t know what happened and it’s out of my hands’.

“Ohh that would be lovely Alfred if it’s not too much trouble” she says, looking at the clock and sighing. “What’s wrong?” Bruce asks. “I have a city council meeting at four. I might have to skip the meal Alfred” she says, getting up and hugging Bruce, kissing his lips again. She’s about to get out of his arms before she realizes that she can’t, the man holding her too tightly. “Well, can I drive you?” he asks, not exactly ready to be away from the woman.

“Bruce, as much as I’d want that, it would take your escort an hour to get ready to follow us. It would be easier and quicker for me to go on my own” she says, pecking his cheek. “Besides, the sooner I go, get there and finish...the sooner I can come back here” she teases before growing nervous. “If that’s what you want anyway”.

He nods, himself being rather short on words. “I’d like that a lot actually” he says. “If you go back to your apartment, if you wanted, pack some night clothes and whatever else you wanted. Maybe you and I could have a date night here” he says.

“Ohh? Mr. Wayne, are you asking me out?”

“Well, I guess I’m asking for a little bit more than that” he intones.

She smiles widely and nods. “If you ask me on a piece of paper with a yes and no box like all boys are supposed to ask a girl I’ll let you know later” she teases, nuzzling his nose. He rolls his eyes and smirks. “Alright, I’ll play it your way” he says. “Good. You’re already being trained” she says causing an exasperated sigh from Bruce while she moves out into his room to get changed, Alfred having placed her washed clothes on a shelf inside after they vacated the room. 

Bruce sits down, smiling after her as he takes the seat she vacated. 

“Well, I assume that it went well last night?” Alfred asks, moving towards the sink to begin washing some dishes that he had used to make the now unneeded breakfast. Bruce is quiet, reflective even, lacing his fingers through one another as he lays his chin on his hands.

“Well, whatever it is that’s on your mind, Master Bruce” Alfred begins, sitting down on the opposite side of the man. “It’s best if you try and speak about it” he says, hoping that he could use this situation to reestablish the relationship he’d lost with the man. “Selina used me to gain access to Wayne Enterprises research and developement wing” he begins. “Ohh my” Alfred says, not exactly being shocked but being hurt on Bruce’s behalf all the same. “I’m sorry Master Bruce. I truly am”.

“Well, you did tell me so” he says with a smirk and a shrug. “Lucius told me this morning. She sent me a message as well. Said she wants a clean break and that that’s why she had to do what she did”

“I think, I might’ve made a mistake with Jane last night” he says.

“I don’t believe so at all Master Bruce” Alfred begins, knowing that he had to say the right thing. “You walked into the kitchen this morning...happy. Genuinely. You weren’t faking it as you are with the other women of the week you had on your arm sir. You smiled, and you smiled wide” Alfred says, giving the man something to think about.

“But, with her past…”

“Which is in the past Master Bruce” Alfred says, stretching the word past. 

“It comes down to one fact. When you are alone in your mind with no outside input, you doubt the decisions you’ve made when you’re letting your heart take control. When you have others around you, your heart tells your brain to butt out. Now I’m asking that you use both at once. Can you find it in you to at least explore what you might have with councilwoman Napier?” he asks.

Bruce is unable to answer as Jane, now fully dressed, reenters the room, her hair perfectly done up once more. “Alright Bruce, I’ll be back later. I..well, thank you for a lovely evening” she says kissing his cheek. She’s reluctant to leave, the both of them are, but eventually she does move away and smiles, the click of her heels on the tiled floor of the manor fading into the distance.

Bruce looks after the woman, a voice entering his head. “Be happy Bruce” it says, sounding suspiciously like Thomas Wayne. “I will dad” he says aloud, drawing the attention of Alfred. “What Master Bruce?” he asks. “Nothing Alfred. Nothing. I’m going to try and get some work done today. Will you drive me to Wayne Enterprises?” he asks.

“....Of course Master Bruce”.


End file.
